Fire Emblem: From Dusk Until Dawn
by General Querencia
Summary: For three years, Daein has suffered at the hands of Begnion, and a ragtag group of vigilantes has worked tirelessly to give the citizens hope. But something older and darker than any magic Micaiah has ever seen threatens the future she foresees. And her little group is a catalyst for it. A rewrite of the events of Radiant Dawn developing the origin of the Dawn Brigade.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note 1:_ _This is a rewrite of_ Radiant Dawn _centered primarily around the development of the Dawn Brigade, so many details will resemble FE10. But I hope my plot strays away from the original enough to keep you engaged. This is a preview of my 2016 NaNoWriMo project._ _I wanted to write out the first chapter before November actually started. I hope to edit and update the NaNo draft regularly after November ends._

 _Author's Note 3 (12/16/2016):_ _I would like to apologize for some of the formatting in this chapter. Apparently, the website didn't save my line-breaks, so this is one massive wall of text with very awkward transitions. I thought I discreetly fixed the problem, but that's not the case, so I'm reuploading this chapter in hopes of fixing the problem._

 **Fire Emblem: From Dusk Until Dawn**

 **Chapter One: Prescience**

"Silver hair?"

"That's what my sources have been telling me, Sir. There are a few others with her, but she's the one that people always seem to remember the most."

"How strange… And you're absolutely certain?"

"I've had at least five confirmed sightings in the past month alone. Some call her a witch. Others think she's the goddess in disguise."

"The goddess? Pfft. These peasants always seem to jump to the most irrational conclusions. What can you tell me about her?"

"Nothing. As far as I can tell, she hasn't existed, or she has pretended to not exist. So odds are, she is the goddess, or she's rather good at hiding."

"If I was in a worse mood, I would have your head for heresy!"

"O-Of course, Sir. I-It was a…vulgar joke. Forgive me…"

"Stop groveling!"

"Y-Yes, Sir! Ahem…but…what should we do with her?"

"…make her hide again. Or make sure history forgets her. Interpret that as you will."

 **~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~**

"Ugh…my head…"

"The voices again?"

"Are we almost home?"

"Maybe…wait here. I'll be back soon."

"W-Wait. What are you-"

"I'll be back. I promise. Stay."

And he was gone. Like always. Micaiah shivered, rubbing her bruised knuckles against her forehead to soothe away the ache. The pounding seemed worse now that Sothe had gone even though the voices had stopped. The darkness grew much vaster without someone beside her. She hadn't thought it possible, but Begnion had finally drained every ounce of light from the night sky. Hidden behind a thick veil of clouds, the moonshine died slowly, painfully, smothered by the ever-growing smog of apathy and fear that seeped out from the villages below. Or maybe the poor thing was just as horrified as she was; it needed to hide for a bit, wait out the disaster, pray it ended… Blaming Begnion was just a means of coping, and she knew it, but at least if she pretended it was Begnion's fault, she could believe the goddess hadn't abandoned them yet.

Sothe had always thought of the darkness as a gift or rather…a tool. He used its properties to shape the fear of his enemies; not knowing had always been the fear he liked to play with most, and darkness devoured all sense of "knowing." Gift or not, Micaiah stumbled through it, groping trees and nothingness with calloused, muddied hands. She wouldn't wait for him. Home was too close. And sleep. She just wanted to sleep.

For a fleeting moment, she saw a light in the distance like a star dancing through the forest. Desperate to find it, she focused on its warmth. Light meant family, friends, safety. If she had been smarter, she would have waited for Sothe to return as he had ordered. But she couldn't. Not in the dark.

She figured the light couldn't lie to her like the darkness often did, telling her where it was safe to place her foot and laughing when she believed its falsehoods. But light was good, she reminded herself. Light was good. She was good.

She saw it again, a flame dancing in the distance, and she pushed herself as fast as she could on the uneven ground. At last, she saw it. Home. For now. The building Sothe had found for their little group wasn't much. It leaked. Its decaying roof and walls didn't protect them from the wind, but with a fire and good company, it was almost like a home. Nolan's stories and Edward's laugh and Leonardo's scoffing gave personality to its moldy walls.

"Nolan!" she called, straining her eyes against the sheet of darkness, greedily trying to find the light once more. "I'm back! Sothe shouldn't be too far…"

She rounded a corner, the warmth of sweet smoke instantly filling her lungs as she caught full sight of a torch this time. Her heart stopped, but her body still reacted, scrambling back in the direction she had come only to find a man in red armor blocking her path. Her trembling fingers grappled with her satchel, searching for her tome, but by time she had it in her hands, two more soldiers had appeared, creeping from the dilapidated building like moths drawn to the torch's flame.

As one man charged, she began to chant a spell, but he caught her by the hair and slammed her skull back into the trunk of a tree. Her tome slipped from her hands, the magic fading from her fingertips as the spell died. The soldier twisted her arms behind her back, pulling her delicate frame up against his dented, heaving breastplate.

"Well what have we here?" the soldier with the torch asked. "Silver hair?" He ran his fingers through her locks twinkling like starlight in the glow of the fire. Micaiah could feel the animalistic heartbeat of the soldier holding her and his breath lingering close to her ear.

She struggled against his grip first, tossing her head about, but he only seemed to snake his grip around her tighter and tighter until she could barely breathe.

"The general is going to be happy to see this one.," the soldier with the torch continued. "I was beginning to think she had escaped."

"All right, witch… If you don't give us any trouble, maybe we'll put in a good word for you, hm? We don't need any more roaches hiding beneath the cracks in the floor."

The young light mage grit her teeth. The soldier in front of her held his face just close enough to hers…if she wanted, she could spit on him. And he seemed to read this thought in her amber eyes, so he drew back.

"…How's about a scream? That might get your friend back here a little sooner. And then we can all go home once he's dealt with. Maybe he won't cause as much trouble as the old man did…"

Micaiah's eyes widened and the two soldiers laughed. In the distance, she could see the dim glow of more torches. "How many more friends do you have hiding around here anyway?"

"That isn't any of your business," she mumbled.

She heard a crack and tasted blood in her mouth before the pain registered in her mind. Blood seeped from a gash on her cheek where the soldier's gauntleted hand had connected with her face. She yelped as he grabbed her jaw and thrust her face into his. "You can tell us, or you can tell the general, and I promise you…you won't like him. So let's try this again; how many more friends do you have hiding around here."

She breathed in one shaky breath. "…one," she finally answered, her voice barely a whisper.

"Good girl." He relaxed his grip on her chin. "And where's he hiding?"

"…behind you."

She watched the panic rise in his eyes until he gave into his urge to turn around. When he returned his gaze to hers, rage had replaced panic. "What kind of joke-"

"I wasn't talking to you."

The soldier holding her arms screamed or rather…he tried. Blood seeped from a wound in his neck, staining her hair. She felt his heart pounding wildly and then nothing at all as his body fell limp behind her. The soldier with the torch grabbed a horn hanging at his side and held it to his lips, a single smooth tone drawing the attention of other soldiers in the area.

"Don't watch," a tall young man ordered as he emerged from the shadows behind her. And Micaiah shut her eyes. She heard the second soldier scream. Thunk. A groan. The screech of metal on metal. Another scream. After a moment, she felt a sweaty hand around her wrist, tugging her along. "I told you to wait." He gathered her tome and shoved it into her chest as he led her back around the remains of their base.

"We can't leave yet. We need to-" Micaiah staggered in the darkness again as her foot caught a rock. Her wrist slipped from Sothe's grasp as she caught herself before she fell face-first onto the ground. It was then that the moon decided to show itself for the first time in what seemed like weeks. She fumbled around for her tome once more and froze. She stared face to face into the misty eyes and pale face of a middle-aged man, his mouth half-open in an unfinished scream. Sothe managed to muffle Micaiah's cry as he swallowed his own surprise.

"You have to keep quiet," he whispered. "We can cry later, but for now, Nolan would want us to escape."

Micaiah shook her head, and Sothe finally forced her to her feet, half dragging her into the shadows once more. "Come on, we'll-"

An arrow flew through the darkness and met the left side of his chest. She watched in horror as he staggered back, eyes wide, hands shaking as they wrapped around the shaft of the arrow. She could see the light fading from his eyes already just as the clouds moved to smother the moonshine once more.

"Run…Keep running. Don't stop."

Micaiah screamed, and this time there wasn't anyone to keep her quiet.

Someone grabbed her again, but she refused to open eyes, to give him the satisfaction of making her watch anything else he could possibly do to her. For the first time, darkness felt like a friend, a gentle caress that might wrap her up in its arms and protect her from the world. She wanted to hide again, to be left alone, to never come out if it meant keeping people around her safe. He shook her, his heavy hands crushing her bird-like arms.

"Micaiah, snap out of it!"

She opened her eyes. Her room was dark, but not quite as dark as she remembered it having been. A middle-aged man stood over her, hands in a vice-grip that kept her from thrashing about. "Micaiah, you looked like you were possessed by something."

Micaiah admired his features for a moment, his youthful eyes, strong jaw, the curl of his greasy, ruddy hair. And then tears began to blind her, spilling over onto her cheeks and the blankets she had wrapped herself in for the night. She turned to look away from him, remembering how empty his eyes had been. She felt his hand on her head as he slipped down beside her and pulled her against his chest. "A vision or a nightmare?" he asked.

"I-I don't know…but I think we should move again…"

"I thought you might say that." Nolan sighed. "That makes…two bases in two months. We can't seem to catch a break, can we?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry… I wish things could be different but-"

"But what? I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be. None of us would be. You can't shoulder the blame all by yourself. The rest of us cause just as much trouble as you do. Duke What's-His-Face still wants Leonardo's head for that stunt he pulled last week. This could very well be about that."

"Maybe…" Micaiah twirled a lock of her hair around a finger, and he stopped her, wrapping his hand over hers.

"Leonardo's not back yet. And Sothe probably won't be back for a few days. Why don't you and Edward head to town and lay low until we can all regroup? I can meet with you once I pack things up. How's that sound?"

The light mage opened her mouth to speak, but she could only whimper in response. Nolan pulled her into his chest again. "Nothing's going to happen to us. We'll find a new place twice as good as this one…probably won't be too hard." He chuckled. "We could always head to Crimea…lay low for a few weeks."

"…if we leave, it will just be harder to come back," Micaiah croaked. "We have to stay."

"Well…We can't help anyone if you don't start sleeping through the night. Promise me you'll try to stay out of sight once you get to town. Sleep for a few hours. Eddie's gotten more than enough sleep for the rest of us. He can keep an eye on you."

"Did…I wake you up?"

"I wasn't even asleep, so you don't have to worry about that." He winked at her. "You should get moving. Pack up your things. I'll wake Edward."

Nolan helped her to her feet, and almost instantly all the warmth left her body as he pulled away from her. For a moment, she thought she saw his form glimmer as though he were just a dream. Everything had an ethereal quality if she looked at it for too long; she could almost taste blood in her mouth, but she was certain it was just her imagination. No mud on her hands. No bruise on her cheek. But her heart still pounded, and her throat still ached from a scream that seemed to be perpetually trapped in it.

She rolled her blankets into a ball and shoved them into her bag.

 **~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~**

"Wow…you look pretty awful in this light. Have you slept at all, Micky?"

Micaiah yawned, fiddling with her cloak, completely certain that she looked awful in any light; even her hood couldn't hide the sheet of silver hair illuminating the bags under her eyes. Her gaze seemed to catch the attention of everyone as they passed, and she couldn't help but think that each and every one of them saw her hair and knew who she was. She should have insisted that they wait in the forest, but Nolan reasoned that they would be sitting ducks if they didn't lose themselves in some crowds. Finding three or four people in Nevessa would be like finding a needle in a haystack…unless that needle practically glowed.

"I haven't been sleeping…"

"Nolan said you had another dream…" Edward looped his own arm through hers, steadying some of her shaking. "These things sure are useful, but they might just do you in. Is there anything you can do to make 'em stop?"

"Get away from danger, I suppose." She offered Edward a smile, and he returned it full force, his brown eyes the size of plates.

"Well how about I cut down a few troublemakers? That should get at least one problem out of the way."

"And create more in the process… Nolan's right. We should…lay low for a little bit. We've been doing too much…"

"You know, I bet this is Leo's fault. He likes to think he's the sensible one, but he causes more trouble than the rest of us put together. He just gets away with it because he can 'rationalize' things. You know, I could rationalize things if I had a few years of school. I'd rationalize my way right out of this hellhole and into a new era!"

"Edward…" Micaiah leaned into his arm, her gaze shifting towards a few women that had been watching them as they passed. They giggled, and Edward shot them a grin. "Please. You're too loud. Let's try to find the church without causing a riot in the street."

"I wouldn't do that. …but I bet you wouldn't scold Leonardo if he did it. When was the last time I caused any trouble for anyone?"

"Didn't Nolan say you were throwing rocks at soldiers just yesterday?"

"…they didn't see me."

Micaiah let herself smile again. She wasn't quite sure how old he was. Actually, no one, not even Edward himself, knew how old he was. He was one of those people that simply seemed to come into existence one day just as he was: almost six feet and barely 140 pounds of fire and sunshine.

"And even if they did, they wouldn't remember me. They see hundreds of kids every day. What's going to make me stick out?"

"Maybe the fact that you threw rocks at them."

"Quiet you. Someone's got to keep them in their place."

She spied a flash of red armor out of the corner of her eye, and Edward seemed to see it as well. Rather than pull her into an alleyway, he kept moving forward, slinking his hand down and lacing his fingers with hers. She gripped it firmly, and he kept tugging her forward. "Look at me," he whispered. "Talk to me. If you look like you've done something wrong, they'll pick up on it. Pretend you like me for a few minutes."

Micaiah begrudgingly lifted her gaze from the ground and tried to focus on Edward's eyes. As happy as he always looked she couldn't help but think he seemed a bit sad at times. He hid it well, but there were times she caught him looking around at the streets of a city and wondered how well he knew them.

"I want to get some real meat from the butcher for dinner tomorrow," he told her as they wove through the crowd and the soldiers, feigning the appearance of distracted lovers. "We'll have one last hurrah in the capital before getting work again. How's that sound?"

"Where do you intend to get the money for that kind of meat?" Micaiah asked, trying not to look over her shoulder as she barely avoided grazing the arm of a soldier.

The young swordsman winked. "I know a few guys. You just leave it to me. I'll see that we have a grand time."

Once the crowds had thinned a bit, Edward stopped and removed his hand from Micaiah's. Rather than continue onward, he crouched down in front of her. "It might be a good idea to go through a few more neighborhoods in case someone's following us. You might collapse before we get to the church. Want a ride?"

"Edward, we'll look ridiculous. I can walk. I'll just sleep later."

"No. I'll look ridiculous, and that doesn't matter to me. Plus I could use the strength training, and you could use the break. Hop on! You know you want to."

"Edward…"

"Micky…"

"Tch…Ed."

"Mic. I can say names too. I can say them ALL day." He shifted his feet, back already aching from crouching for too long.

She sighed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He pulled himself into an upright position and steadied her on his back with his hands on her thighs. "There we go! How's that? You just rest your pretty little head and let me handle the paranoia for a bit, all right?"

"Don't push yourself," she reminded him, placing her head on his shoulder. As he walked, the world moved by like a dream. A few people stared and whispered and her grip around Edward tightened just a bit.

"Close your eyes. Imagine how great our next base will be."

She decided to listen to him. "A noble's forgotten summer home would be nice. Maybe a little dusty."

"Leo would have it cleaned up in no time!"

"There's probably lots of forgotten treasure…"

"Sothe could sell it. We'd have enough to live off of for the next three years."

"It'd be warm. We could stay there all winter, and no one would bother us."

"Nope. Not even the goddess herself. Just our own quiet, little secret castle."

Micaiah tried to imagine it, but the picture simply wouldn't form in her mind like she wanted it to. It was always cold and dark, rancid and empty… No matter where they stayed, they would feel like rats, settling for anything that resembled shelter. Edward continued talking, and she encouraged him with general grunts of agreement. His swift movements felt almost like a bird floating above the clouds. He bobbed and weaved through streets and before too long she realized he had stopped talking. He stepped in rhythm to a song he hummed under his breath, and she imagined he was dancing through the streets, a victorious mercenary challenging anyone to try and disturb the peace he had created.

He was thirty years old, burly, still rough around the edges and always smiling. He had married a beautiful knight, and he returned to his children at the end of the day every day. They called her Aunt Micky, but she was still a child herself even though her eyes were older than even Nolan's by then. And she watched everyone around her grow wrinkled and gray, but she never changed.

Edward shifted his grip on Micaiah as she awoke with a start. She panicked for a moment and then settled down. The streets were empty except for a few stray guards in the alleyways, some talking to prostitutes, others gambling. They probably wouldn't spring into action even if someone asked them to. "I decided to stay away from the center of the capital. We're almost there," he told her. "St. Lucius's place is around here somewhere. Or at least it was before the war. It was always a pretty safe bet even when other places were pretty full."

"I can walk now." She squirmed until he set her down, and she watched as he stretched out his aching arms. "…how long did I sleep?"

"Maybe just an hour. I walked through a few of the old places we used to visit, said hi to a few people. I'm pretty sure no one's after us right now."

"Thanks, Edward. I really appreciate it."

"Any time!" The young swordsman saluted her and proceeded to drag her off down the street once more.

"H-Hey! Stop that!"

Micaiah looked over her shoulder. From an alley, several men had emerged, pursuing a young woman and what looked like her brother. She pulled her arm out of one man's grasp and slung her fist into his cheek giving her enough time to step in front of the boy as the others circled around her.

"Oh come on. You know the rules," the man said as he tried to rearrange his aching jaw in his mouth. "Pay the toll or else. I'm sure you could find a way to scrounge up a few coins here and there. I can think of a few things I'd pay you for…"

"Hey! Back off!" Edward yelled, tugging Micaiah behind him. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!" His hand twitched over his sword, fire pulsing in his eyes as he sized each of the brutes up. Six total. All with axes or swords. Odds were better than they could have been.

"What've we got here?" a second man asked, cracking his knuckles. "Looks like a squirrel to me. You gonna pay the fee for her?"

"You could always just walk away now," Micaiah told him calmly. For some reason, her hands had stopped shaking. Maybe an hour of sleep had made all the difference in the world, or maybe Edward's aura worked its own special brand of magic on her. She reached for her tome in her bag and held it against her chest, the magic from it warming her instantly. "The people here have enough trouble as it is without your causing more."

"We're just trying to keep a little order in this place. I don't think anyone in authority has any problems with it. I don't see any soldiers trying to stop us. Do you?"

"We won't ask again. Please leave."

"Yeah! Scram!"

"A squirrel and a little bird… You gonna' chase us off all by yourself?"

"Do it," Edward said, nodding in Micaiah's direction. "I'll cover you."

"What are you ladies jabbering on ab-"

Micaiah raised her hand and from her fingertips light sprung forth, filling the void of the dull cloudy day with warmth. The bandits reeled back, cringing and giving the young woman and boy enough time to retreat safely.

"Thank you," the woman gasped as she hurried by.

"We gonna stay and finish this?" Edward asked.

Micaiah merely nodded. "They'll continue to be a problem if we don't deal with them now."

"Nolan's going tear us a new one."

"Not if we can end this quickly and quietly."

"Then I'll handle the quick, and you handle the quiet."

 **~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~**

Ever since falling asleep, Micaiah's sense of time had dissolved into nothing. The grey of the day didn't help matters. It could have been morning, afternoon, or almost night, and she wouldn't know.

Had they been fighting for hours?

How many men were there now?

This wasn't a dream, right? This was real…it had to be. The smell of blood was too vivid…the screams of citizens too loud…

Edward took the brunt force of the attacks and did what he could to remain energetic if only to keep her spirits alive and well despite the worsening odds, and she remained behind, picking them off one by one. These men were easily twice her size but then again, Edward didn't exactly have a powerful physique despite being tall. His smile wavered with each blow against his defenses.

"Hey! Micky! Look out!"

The light mage looked up into the whites of a bandit's eyes. He had his axe raised above his head, but as he brought it down, an arrow lodged itself in his neck. Sputtering, the bandit dropped his axe at her feet, and his body landed not too far from it. "Thanks, Leo…" Edward heaved as he shouldered his blade. "Guess I let one of them pass."

"Is it impossible for you to stay out of trouble?" the blonde archer asked, lowering his bow.

"You have no room to talk."

"I'm not the one that started a brawl in the street."

"Well…we finished it, didn't we?"

" _I_ finished it."

"Oye! There they are!"

"And there are more of them..." Leonardo dipped his head in greeting to Micaiah before readying another arrow. "At least they're just bandits and not soldiers this time. How many more hits do you think you can take, Edward?"

"Is Nolan coming?"

"Naturally."

"Then I'll last as long as it takes for him to get here."

"I'm serious. You should pull back if you're injured."

"Hi, Serious. I'm Edward. Nice ta' meet ya'!"

A vein in the archer's forehead pulsed. "You're clearly well enough to fight. I ought to let them knock you around a bit more."

"Bring it on!"

Leonardo's strategy was to draw the bandits in one by one, doing minimal damage with his bow while Edward took a breather. By time the thugs were close enough to do any damage, Edward could swoop in and finish them off. But this strategy only worked if they managed to keep the thugs from ganging up on them. Before too long, the three of them had been backed into a corner.

Micaiah knew she should have been watching the boys, but she couldn't help but shift her gaze to the town around them. Most of the citizens in the area peered out from behind boarded up windows to look at them. A few huddled in alleyways for cover, many of them children without anywhere else to hide. But they didn't look as scared as she thought they should have been. Many of them kept their gaze locked on Leonardo and Edward as they picked off a few more men. The archer shot with the grace and finesse of a professional while Edward staggered about, landing hits with plenty of extra help from the goddess's grace, never stopping even after a few close calls. She moved forward herself, blinding another man with a bolt of light while simultaneously burning another.

Three left, she counted. Just three.

Leonardo narrowly dodged a thug's axe trying to get some distance between the two of them, but the man seemed intent on keeping him cornered. The two others had ganged up on Edward, one of which seemed to have taken little to no damage. As Edward thrust his blade into the shoulder of one, the larger thug swung at the young swordsman's head. Edward dodge the axe's blade, but its handle connected with the side of his skull, creating a sickening crack that sent him sinking to the ground. Micaiah fired off another bolt of light to distract him, but it missed merely illuminating the sneer on the man's face as he threatened to cleave his axe down on Edward's neck.

A rock nailed the man in the head from behind, forcing him to miss his swing but just barely. He grit his teeth and instantly redirected his anger to the particularly courageous children venturing out from the alleyway with stones in hand.

"Leave him alone!" a thin bespectacled boy yelled, his voice cracking. A chorus of timid agreement echoed from behind him.

"Micaiah!" Leonardo yelled to get her attention even though she had clearly seen the accident. He jumped back far enough to finish off the man he was fighting, but he still wasn't quick enough to get to Edward. Weapon back in hand, Edward charged for the man as he advanced on the kids.

"We're not done!" he yelled as he jumped onto the man's back from behind. He kept one arm locked around his neck and thrust his blade into his side.

"Edward, stop!" Micaiah finally finished off the third man with the combined efforts of Leonardo.

The bigger, stronger man threw Edward off without much trouble, causing the young street boys to scramble. Edward jumped to his feet just in time to catch the blade of the man's axe in his stomach.

"Not so tough now, are we?" the bandit taunted as Edward slid back against the wall of the alleyway, blood already staining his tunic. "You can stay here with the rest of the trash." A firm kick pried the young man's body from his weapon and sent him sprawling into the dirt.

Laughing as he turned to finish off the other two troublemakers, the thug managed to meet Leonardo's gaze just a split second before an arrow lodged itself in his forehead. Leo shoved his way through the corpses and fell to his knees at Edward's side, ripping open his bloodied shirt and trying to hold the wound closed all at the same time. His hands remained steady the entire time, but all the color had drained from his face. "Don't move," he croaked.

"Wasn't planning on it…" Edward returned. His lips tried to form a smile but instead his face twisted in pain as Leo applied pressure to the gash. "…th-that was a good shot."

"We can talk about it later. Micaiah! Run and get a priest!"

The light mage knelt beside the archer, light glowing from her fingertips already. She placed one hand over Edward's forehead and another on his gash and closed her eyes. She could hear Leonardo's protest like a distant cry in the back of her head, but Edward couldn't wait for a priest that might not come. Little by little, she transferred her own vitality to him. It was almost like releasing a burden if life was a burden… But the more she pushed, the more desperately she gave, the less she felt like herself. She was just a husk shriveled in the sun and blown away by the breeze. But she pushed herself more and more. She could feel Edward's wounds closing underneath her fingertips.

"Micaiah! Stop it!" Firm hands grasped her shoulders and wrenched her away from Edward's now unconscious body. She fell away like a puppet, limp in Leonardo's arms as he tried to shake her from her stupor.

"Can you carry her?" Nolan's voice asked Leonardo from somewhere in the area.

Micaiah assumed he agreed even if he thought he couldn't. He wasn't the strongest in their group, but Micaiah wasn't very big to begin with. He could handle it. Nolan needed to carry Edward. …they wouldn't be able to stay at the church after all. Her hood had slipped from her head, and she couldn't help but imagine all the townspeople staring at her, whispering about her as the four of them retreated, all covered in blood.

"Whoa…did you see her?"

"Yeah…how did she do that?"

"…what is she?"

In the encroaching shadows, she saw a little orange bird and watched as it hopped along the bloodied ground, beady eyes following their every move.

 _What am I?_

 _Author's Note 2:_ _When I write chapters, they never usually exceed around 2,500 words in length, but this one is over twice that long. I thought about dividing it up to make it less intimidating, but decided against it. Please let me know if you have a preference towards longer or shorter chapters or if it makes any difference at all._


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note 1: Well, I did it. I wrote my 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo this year. I thought I might be able to finish this fic in its entirety in that month, but I didn't even finish Part 1. (And that's out of 3 parts.) At the moment, I'm in the process of editing what I do have written, and it's a slow process unfortunately. There's some good stuff and some bad stuff, and it's taking a while to sort through it. But I hope to steadily update. I've spent far too much time staring at this chapter, and I'm still not incredibly happy with it. I feel like it could be better, but at this point, if I fiddle with it anymore, I'll never finish it. Enjoy!_

 **Fire Emblem: From Dusk Until Dawn**

 **Chapter Two: Reminiscence**

"I found her outside of Nevassa yesterday. I believe her group has slipped away unnoticed, but you know as well as I do that Jarod won't allow his forces to forget a mistake like this. Would you like for me to continue pursuing her?"

"Watch her. Nothing more. It is better if she handles her trials alone. If you coddle her now, she'll never… No never... "

"Milord?"

"I want to see how this plays out. Only intervene if you think they might kill her. When the time is right, push her. Now, I know for certain she would break. So not yet. Not until she's stronger… Much stronger. You will know when."

"...Of course, milord."

"What was she like?"

"I haven't spoken with her yet. I thought my presence might spook her, so I'm afraid there isn't much I can say."

"Then what was your impression of her?"

"She's tired."

"As expected. People like us are born tired. We live that way for far too long. And we inevitably die of fatigue. I wanted better for her. But it seems it's too late."

"You're not to blame."

"You couldn't possibly know that. You're far too young. ...Keep watching. I don't want any harm to come to her."

"Yes, milord." 

**~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~**

"Is he awake?" Leonardo peeked his head into the makeshift sick room prepared for Edward with borrowed blankets and a fire Nolan had birthed through a battle of wills against the temperamental furnace. They tolerated the stale stench it produced only because the man had labored for hours to find a structure with four walls, a roof, and a corner warm enough to keep Edward alive in. He was lucky enough to have known a guy who knew another guy who had a friend who remembered his wife's uncle had passed away, and the family allowed his cabin in the woods to deteriorate into a moldy, forgotten monument. A perfect temporary home. Though looters and bandits had gutted its interior, the structure itself remained unyielding to the elements.

"Not right now." Micaiah answered him without lifting her eyes from the swordsman's sleeping form. She had always thought his eyes were what gave Edward his eternally youthful appearance, but she had watched him sleep long enough to decide that it was the delicate but not quite emaciated structure of his body that stunted his aging. Almost like a child who had died too young. "He's looking...better, but I'm not sure how he would fare if I didn't offer him some of my own strength every few hours." She rubbed at her eyes. "...please don't tell Nolan."

The archer merely nodded, looming beside her like a shadow. She reached out to caress the heavy creases along his brow. A new one seemed to appear every time he entered this corner of the world, and the oldest ones had grown deep enough to expose his innermost worries.

"Has he awakened at all today?"

"For a few minutes about an hour ago. I'm not sure if he'll remember, but he was asking about you, and the shot you made. He's still rather impressed."

"You promised to retrieve me when he awakened, Micaiah."

"I know…but you had just fallen asleep. Nolan made the call. Not me."

"I need to talk to him. If there's a chance that he won't wake up again… There are too many things I've left unsaid. He needs to know-"

"He won't die. I won't let him. And more importantly, he won't give up." Edward shuddered in his sleep, and Leonardo held his tongue, but his friend merely caught his breath and fell back into a restless slumber.

"He's stupid." Leonardo coated the concern in his voice with a layer of venom that cracked as he forced out that last syllable. Micaiah watched as the shield shattered, but it was subtle. The archer had only ever expressed true fear in two ways. "I've never met someone more foolish in my entire life, and I doubt I'll ever meet someone who has less sense than him. If he had waited a second longer… I should kill him for doing this." He wrung his hands as if his friend's blood was still on them. He noticed the trembling after Micaiah did and shoved them into his pockets. "It's cold."

"There's nothing in this world that could have made him wait. I've played the scene over and over again in my head, but no matter what we do, Edward always charges forward like that." He wasn't a knight or a rook or a pawn on a chessboard. He wouldn't allow such rules to guide his energy, so he chose to become a rogue element; one that accepted the danger that came from acting first and thinking later. This was the sort of trouble she should have been predicting, but she didn't control what the goddess let her see. At this point, she didn't even control when she got to sleep.

Leonardo couldn't muster up another few words without betraying the poor state of his emotional shield, so he merely offered a deceivingly thoughtful nod.

"Do you want to sit with him for a while?" Micaiah asked. "Maybe if you scolded him, he'd be quicker to recover. He seems to listen to you a bit better than the rest of us."

"That isn't saying much, Micaiah."

"But do you?"

Leonardo dipped his head in thanks to the young woman and kneeled down beside her and his friend. He reached out for Micaiah's arm as she rose. "You're not staying?"

"I…need some fresh air. Just a little bit. I don't think I can take too much more of being cooped up like this. I need to sleep…and dream."

"You haven't had any visions?"

"No. I just sense danger, but I'm not sure from where or from whom." She pulled back her hair into a lopsided ponytail and drew the hood of her cloak over her head. "But the feeling doesn't go away, and that's...bad. But if I told Nolan that…"

"He wouldn't make us move. He cares about Edward's health."

"Yes. But he might make _me_ leave. I'm the one they want. The posters talk about our group, but _I'm_ the only one people recognize. We're all in danger if I stay."

"We'll stick together," the archer stated. "We've been together this long. Why stop now?"

"That's a good question. I have a lot of answers for it as well, but I'm afraid they're not the ones you're looking for."

"We're not scared of Begnion. Maybe they'll cut us down eventually, but we'll go down together. That's all that matters."

She took his hand from her arm and cradled it between both of hers. His fingers were as delicate as a woman's, but the tips were worn and calloused beyond repair. Despite her best efforts to warm him, his hand continued to tremble even as he pulled it away. "Don't tell Nolan…" he whispered, shoving them back into his pockets.

"Of course not." She left a kiss on his forehead as a parting gift and hurried away from his side. Leaving the sickroom reminded her of how cold Daein could be even during autumn. The chill wormed its way through every imaginable flaw in the building's structure intent on smothering any semblance of life. She pulled her cloak around her shoulders and wandered the empty halls until she spied Nolan's shadow on the front porch, axe by his side. He held a lit pipe in his hands and blew rings of smoke from his mouth.

"I didn't know you smoked."

"I try not to around you kids," he answered with a grin. "I don't like it much. It makes me feel fat and blind like my old man. I only have this because it was his anyway."

"That's no reason to smoke, but it's still very pretty."

Nolan held it up for her to get a better look. The wood had been whittled away and sanded down by hand so it was completely smooth and rounded. The same careful hand had carved a forest around the rim, almost like the one they were sitting in now. "He smoked too much. I think that's what killed him in the long-run. One day he started coughing and never stopped. But it always feels like he's here with me if I give it a try."

Micaiah sat down beside him, smiling as she hugged her arms for warmth. "If you ask me, it looks like you're trying to make excuses for a bad habit."

"I've been around for almost forty years now. I'm allowed to have my vices. Between you and the boys, my hair's turning grey a lot faster than it should."

"I thought I spied a few."

He blew a ring of smoke in her face, causing her to cough. After a few more thoughtful puffs, he set the pipe down and arched back to watch the ever-grey sky. "How's he doing?"

"Which one?"

Nolan rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Leo needs Eddie to wake up soon. He's been driving himself crazy these past few days. If Eddie doesn't start to get better, I may have to go kidnap a priest. You're killing yourself trying to help him."

"I know my limits," Micaiah answered.

"That's a lie, and you know it."

The light mage chose not to respond, fixating her gaze on the mostly frozen ground in front of them, She wondered how the birds survived in the cold. Humanity was so fragile that it was almost as if the goddess expected them to die. If the rest of her creation didn't kill them, they would certainly kill each other.

"I remember when I saw you for the first time in Nevassa," Nolan continued. "You were the one thing that didn't fit in with the rest of us."

"I told fortunes. That wasn't exactly an honorable occupation. Not even among bums and thieves."

"Well let's take a second and look at the big picture." He sat up to full height. "I was and still am an ugly, hulking brute. I spent most of my free time swindling money from soldiers. Oh…and let's not forget that I have a smoking problem. When most people I'm around are exactly like me, and I suddenly see a pretty thing spending her free time trying to un-gut dead prostitutes...I say that's something that doesn't fit into my extremely narrow world view.."

Micaiah didn't look up. "Her name was Jess…"

Nolan crouched back down, his eyes soft again.

"I shouldn't have brought that up."

"No. You're right. I push myself too much. I'll try to be more mindful of my actions."

Nolan snaked an arm around Micaiah's shoulder and pulled her in close against him. Somehow, his body fought against the cold and won, emitting soft warmth unlike any fire. "You shouldn't take everything so personally. If you're always thinking about what has happened, you'll always be miserable. There are a lot of things I could have done differently with my life. I could've been a rich merchant. I could've had a family. But if I think about that, that makes my life right now pretty miserable, don't you think?"

"It's not exactly an ideal life."

"No. It's pretty awful on days like this. But there's no telling what would happen to Eddie and Leo if I didn't drag them out of trouble half of the time. And there's no telling what would have happened to you if…well... Point is, we're all here for a reason. What's your reason?"

She twisted her body, so she could hide her face in the warmth of his chest to forget about the inevitable snow. "Am I meant to answer this question now?"

"I'd love it if you tried."

"Well then…I'm here for Daein. I've seen people suffer here for as long as I've been alive. For once, I want to see the majority thrive. It seems like a reasonable request, but for some reason, those in power always want to keep all the happiness. And they don't make it for themselves. They take it from others."

"The world's a tough place."

"Then I want it to be a little easier."

"I think that's fair enough. It'd be nice to see this place looking a little more vibrant. It wasn't terrible when I was a kid…at least from what I remember. My folks stopped smiling before too long though...Ashnard had something to do with that."

"And after that, I just want to hide without worrying that someone terrible might find me. Somewhere bright and quiet."

"Sothe might have something to say about that. There's not a corner of this world you could hide in where he won't find you. And you better believe the rest of us will follow."

"I don't mind if he finds me. I'd actually prefer it if he stayed."

She exhaled into the cool afternoon air. It wouldn't snow yet, she decided. Not for quite some time. But they wouldn't last for much longer in weather like this. "We need to put as much distance between us and Nevessa as we can."

"That's a good idea. I've been keeping an eye out for soldiers, but I think we lost them. Either that or Sothe's been giving them a good run for their money. He should be back soon if he found my message."

"After we clear some things up, maybe we can start work again..."

"You think we're ready?"

"If we stop, people might think we let Begnion scare us off. We have to do something, even if it's little. You know Edward won't sit still once he wakes up."

"I'll look into what we can do in the surrounding area. We just have to be careful, Micaiah. We can't afford to have this happen again. If it had been you-"

"We'll all be careful. I won't make anymore foolish mistakes. I promise."

Nolan sighed, finally releasing his grip on her as her frail shoulders began to tense up underneath his firm hand. He gave her one last thoughtful pat on the back before standing up, groaning a bit as he stretched his legs out underneath him. "I'm be too old for all of this. And the lot of you are too young. There's just no winning for any of us."

"There aren't any winners in war. We all lose something."

"Begnion didn't lose much."

"They lost more than we ever will."

Nolan pondered her thoughts for a moment and then shook his head. "I don't understand, and I won't pretend I do. I went to school for numbers, and that's probably all I'll ever be good for in the long run. I'll leave the philosophy to you kids and the priests."

Micaiah cracked a smile at him. "You're good for a lot more than numbers."

"You flatter me, little lady. I suppose I can catch some good birds. I should probably go ahead and do that or else we won't have much to eat tonight. Leo hasn't been up for hunting, so I guess I've gotta' pull some extra weight. And you should-"

"Sleep. I know. I think I will." Micaiah offered the man a kiss on the cheek even though she had to stand on her toes to give it to him before heading off somewhere a little warmer to sleep. She supposed it didn't matter much where she slept. Edward's room was the only one with any sort of fire going, and she wasn't about ready to disturb Leonardo. He needed some time to worry on his own.

She passed the sick room as she headed towards the stairs and paused just a moment to watch the archer. He sat with a rigid back and a trained, unblinking gaze. But she could still see him trying to stop the trembling in his hands. He would flex and tense them over and over again, hoping each release of pressure would fix them…but it didn't. So he kept at it, squeezing his eyes shut in frustration. She wanted to reach out and touch him and tell him that everything would be just fine, but she didn't know that. Of all the things she knew for certain, their survival wasn't one of them.

 **~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
**  
"Crap...it feels like something's going to tear open my stomach, leap out, and devour a couple of faces before Nolan kills it…" Edward still managed to take a few steps using Leonardo as a crutch. But even if some of the color had returned to both of the boy's faces, there wasn't enough of a glow between them to create even one living being.

"You probably shouldn't push yourself yet. If it were up to me, we would be here another week," the archer said. "Maybe a month...wounds like this need time, or they can reopen."

"Thank you, Doc. Very insightful stuff. But Nolan said he saw soldiers in the forest. We shouldn't stay if it means we might get into another fight. Face it. You guys would need me in any sort of condition to pull out a victory. Some Edward is better than no Edward."

"Hardly. If I needed someone to bleed all over the battlefield I'd ask an enemy to do it. You bleed enough for both parties."

"Hey-"

"He has a point, Edward," Nolan scolded as he entered the room, shaking mud and crushed pine needles from his boots.

"If my Ma could've fed me better, maybe I'd've been a tank like you, old man."

Nolan shook his head and sighed for the umpteenth time that morning. "I'll see if we can get a horse from the next town. Until then, looks like I'm going to be giving you a lift."

"Can't you just leave me behind? I'd rather keep my pride intact."

"You still have pride after all of this?" Leonardo raised an eyebrow.

"I took my punishment like a real hero and didn't cry like a certain blonde-haired beauty."

"I didn't cry!"

"I heard you. You guys aren't subtle with your mourning. Next time, make sure I'm dead before you start wailing like banshees. Though I have to admit that the attention is nice. I wouldn't mind a little more of it."

Leonard released his grip on Edward and let him fall to the ground with a thunk. Edward groaned, clutching his side while the archer merely ignored the melodrama oozing from his friend's lips. "I say he's fine after all. No need to fuss over him anyway. I'm sure he could walk on his own"

"Leonardo…" After picking Edward up off the floor and setting him back down on his makeshift bed, Nolan ran a hand through his rusty matted hair. "We're not going to head too far yet, but I expect you boys to be serious about all of this. We absolutely cannot pick anymore fights with others or each other." He glanced over at a rather distracted Micaiah as he finished his thought.

"Do you have any idea when Sothe will return?" she asked after noticing his gaze.

"None at all," he told her. "If he's tried to contact us, I wouldn't know. The best we can do is leave him another message here and hope he catches up."

"I see…"

"If something had happened to him, we _would_ know about it. We don't need any tears over uncertainty."

"Yeah. Leo's done more than enough of that!"

"Hush," Leonardo tightened his fists when Edward winked in his direction.

"Let's get a move-on, lady and gentlemen. We need to pack up, and I want to find somewhere safe before it gets too dark. I know a pretty nice village not too far from here."

"Of course you do," the group droned in unison.

 **~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~**

Nolan's endless resources unfortunately failed to procure them a horse, so Leonardo took turns with the axeman helping Edward limp along until the swordsman's pride crumbled, and he allowed himself to be carried. He complained at first, but secretly he seemed relieved that he didn't have to walk. But he remained oddly quiet after giving up. They reached a fork in the road before too long, and while Nolan struggled to remember which direction the village was in, Leonardo noticed some lightly carved symbols etched into the sign at the center of the fork.

"I think these are meant for us" he said, squinting to read the symbols along the wooden pole.

"You sure?" Nolan asked. "I can't imagine who'd need us out here."

"Maybe the village you're trying to find. We had a full moon…two days ago, right?" He traced his forefinger over a rather hastily sketched circle beneath a sun surrounded by ten stars.

"Sounds about right. What kind of job are they looking for?"

"I'm not too sure. But the sun is asking for our aid. The moon and stars indicate that the request was made two days ago this month. But I have no idea what this mark means." His finger lingered over a giant X, the grooves in the symbol much deeper and jagged than the rest of them. "It's not any of the ones we see regularly. If Sothe's system wasn't so confounded-"

"It's not a request." Micaiah edged up next to Leonardo. "It's a warning. It means to stay away…"

"Stay away?" Edward echoed. "Why? No one's ever given us a warning like this before. You sure they didn't make a mistake?"

"No." Micaiah shook her head. "When I traveled with those fortune tellers during the war, we saw this one a lot. Usually, it was a warning for laguz. Daein was dangerous regardless, but some places meant certain death.. It was usually to warn them of the whereabouts of the…real threats."

"Like Petrine," Edward said.

"Yes. Like her."

"Unfortunately, we might need to check it out anyway," Nolan said. "We can't be out here after dark, or we'll freeze to death. They might be willing to house us if they think we can help chase off a few threats."

"But we can't," Leonardo said.

"We'll do what we can and nothing more. I'm more willing to trust in the kindness of people than the predictability of Mother Nature."

"At least Mother Nature isn't unnecessarily cruel. What you see is what you get," Edward added. "Doesn't mean you have to like it, but I've never known a tree to lie to someone."

"People and nature are both equally complicated. They come from the same source. So we're all screwed in the end regardless of what we do. Lovely, huh?" Nolan took charge of the group once more and started off towards the town.

Micaiah thought about the stillness of the world they were entering. Compared to Nevassa, everything around them had halted as if the earth were holding its breath as they passed. She could hear the echo of her footsteps against the partially frozen earth, each crunch just as incriminating as the last. She could see the autumn breeze flowing through their group, ruffling clothes and air. But she didn't feel any of it.

She imagined herself sitting atop the world, watching everything unfold. The texture of the earth beneath her boots, the crisp air, the heavy silence… She could remember what those things were like, but she couldn't grasp them. She couldn't even feel her own warmth. _This is just a dream, Micaiah._

 _I'm not dreaming._ She couldn't remember falling asleep.

 _Wake up. Wake up._ Hugging her arms, she concentrated on the cold. There were goosebumps along her arms. Her bare hands trembled as they fought to warm themselves up. She knew what cold was like. Stiff. Stuffocating. Stinging.

 _Humans are strange and terrible creatures._

 _All of us are._ Of course, mortals were capable of great kindness, but that didn't stop them from doing equally terrible things. When it came down to it, they all had a choice. Tell the truth or lie. Help or hurt. Us or them.

 _They'll leave you. And if they don't, you'll leave them._

"You're awfully quiet back there, Micky," Edward called back to her. "Tired?"

"A bit," she answered. Leonardo shot a glance in her direction, and she looked down. "Something feels wrong, but I don't know what. I must be paranoid."

"I have the same feeling, so at least we're in the same boat," Nolan said. "Does that make you feel any better?"

"Probably not. I'd be pretty bummed if someone compared my mental well-being to a crazy old man's."

"Don't make me drop you."

Micaiah felt the stinging caress of the wind against her cheeks. _I'm awake._

And then she dry heaved. Now doubled over, she felt Leonardo's hand on her shoulder, trying to shake her out of her thoughts. She cleared her throat several times, tasting imaginary bile on her tongue. But every time she tried to catch her breath, a distant memory kept battering itself against the cage she had trapped it in long ago.

"That village much be burning something," Leonardo stated, covering his nose with a rag.

"...bodies," Edward answered. "A lot of 'em."

Nolan wordlessly pushed their group forward towards the front gates.

Gasping for fresh air, Micaiah allowed Leonardo to lead her along. She scanned the area for any sign of color, but as civilization came into view only the dying fire still smoldering at the center of the blackened town square littered with mangled bodies provided any sign that life still existed or had existed. Every last square inch of what she could see was black. Black from burns. Black from ash. Black from the night. An inky hand had reached down from the heavens and stolen everything from them, even the light of the day. And the fire that remained wasn't a light of hope, just a cruel reminder of what it illuminated. Their silence felt as black as the hearts of those that had done this.

"...what's that say?' Edward asked, breaking the silence once more. He pointed a bony finger towards a wall, scorched but still standing among the debris where letters etched in red appeared when the flames danced close enough to it. Nolan squinted, taking a few steps forward.

"'YOUR NEXT!'"

"Begnion," Micaiah stated flatly.

"We don't know it was them," Leonardo returned. "The inaccurate grammar suggests bandits."

"Then it was Begnion's job to stop this from happening. At this point it isn't the presence of the soldiers that's killing us. It's their apathy."

"We should keep moving," Nolan offered as he juggled a squirming Edward on his back. "If I remember correctly, there might be a barn not too far from here… We can stay there for the night and move bright and early before anyone wakes up."

"The dead do not normally awaken." Leonardo pointed out.

"Only on special occasions." Micaiah's eyes were hollow as she spoke. Leonardo nudged her, but that didn't change a thing. "We can't leave them like this."

Nolan shook his head. "Micaiah...trying to fix the dead won't help the living."

"These people aren't dead." They'd wake up the next time she closed her eyes.

"We could bless the place, couldn't we?" Edward offered, eying Micaiah carefully. "Throw some salt around, say a few prayers, throw together a shrine… That shouldn't take long."

Nolan shook his head again. "We don't have any salt, Edward,"

"Two out of three isn't bad."

"It would be smarter to move." A tall young man, his face and hair smeared with ash, materialized in a nearby tree. The group jumped in unison, but Leonardo was the only one to reach for his weapon.

"Some reflexes, guys…"

"Sothe?" Micaiah's eyes filled with color for a moment as she clutched at her chest, her heart threatening to leap out. The rogue jumped down from his perch and let her embrace him. And she didn't let go.

"So you found your way to us?" Nolan asked, trying not to let his surprise show, but he was having trouble getting a good grip on Edward again after having almost dropped him.

"I made it back to Nevassa about a week ago," he started. "I saw that you had left, and on my way to you, I found some jobs. One of them looked simple enough, and I figured it might get Begnion off of your backs if I caused trouble elsewhere. My contacts ended up telling me that a little village was looking for some help. Simple stuff, get the guards to leave. I figured I could handle a few of them on my own."

"But this happened…" Leonardo mused.

"I didn't get here in time to stop this. There were a few children and a homeless guy that had survived, but that's all. From what I can tell, the soldiers were looking for resources. And they met resistance with...this. I've been cleaning things up since yesterday."

"And the soldiers?" Nolan asked.

"As far as I can tell, they returned to Nevassa. They've leeched this area dry. Probably better that they return. I doubt they could get away with this in the capital."

"Hm...of course…"

"What are you thinking, old man?" Edward asked.

"This might be the safest place to stay for the night. If we wander too much, we'll risk running into soldiers. We can stay at least until sunrise and try to help Sothe tidy things up a bit, maybe sleep a little. But it would be foolish to wander."

"There's a tavern that they left mostly untouched. The building, not its...resources. That's where I found the kids. Why don't you head there, and we'll catch up?" He squeezed Micaiah's shoulder to get her attention, and she nodded in agreement.

"Don't wait out here too long," the axeman warned. "I mean it. It's too cold for philandering."

"Of course not. We'll just be a few minutes." He watched as Nolan and the boys headed into town, mindful of the carnage strewn about.

Sothe held Micaiah at arm's length to get a good look at her, but she closed the gap between them and took his face in her hands. Rubbing her thumb across his cheek, she tried to scrape away the layer of ash with little success. "You should have come back sooner. We've been worried."

"Is that why you haven't been sleeping?" He took her hands and rubbed his own over them, trying to warm them. "You need to take better care of yourself. You know I can get myself out of trouble, so you really don't need to worry like this."

"It's not just you, Sothe. I don't sleep because I can't...because things like this happen when I do. And they'll happen even if I don't. But sometimes the things in my dreams are worse than this." She pulled her hands away from him and rubbed at her eyes. This was real. Sothe was real."There has to be more we can do...to stop things like this."

"Maybe there is, but this isn't something we should talk about right now." He pulled her close, holding her in a tender embrace. "I worry about you too, you know?"

"You smell like smoke." Her voice cracked, and he pulled away from her. "H-How many children did you find?" She covered her face with her sleeve, muffling the sound of her shrinking voice.

"Five. And one man. They're good kids. And they'll take care of each other. I took them to the city north of here. Left them with a friend. They'll be fine."

"...good." She swallowed the word, mouth now dry and lips trembling. She felt Sothe's arms around her once more, and even though she cherished his touch, she wasn't sure she could tolerate his smell or the smell around them..

"You can cry if you need to."

She shrunk down to the ground with him by her side, shriveling underneath the weight of mortality's ugly nature. She breathed in and out in short, painful spurts all in vain. _You need to wake up._ "Don't tell Nolan."

"Of course not…" He ran a hand through her tangled mass of hair. "But he wouldn't stop you either. He's seen all of us at our worst."

"...please don't tell him."

 **~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~**

Nolan blew on a set of dice, eliciting a giggle from one of the prettier bystanders. Much to the dismay of the frustrated soldiers around him, he back-pedaled into her direction and held them out for her to blow on as well. "I could always use a little extra luck." She giggled again when he winked, obliging him with a shy puff before retreating to her gaggle of friends. **  
**

"All right, gentlemen," the axeman continued. "Let's see if I can make a little comeback. You're the ones that brought this on yourselves."

"Just get on with it!" one of the men shouted.

Nolan let the dice fly. They bounced around for awhile, eventually revealing a beautiful snake-eyes as they settled. "Well look at that. I guess I win after all…"

"You're a dirty cheat." The soldier kicked at the dice, tossing dust into the air. Nolan blinked, and much to his surprise found the man's fist right in his face. The blow was enough to knock him off balance, sending him sprawling onto his back. To be honest, he expected worse, but luckily the soldiers seemed to have something better to do than beat up on an old, homeless man. Once they had left, he pulled himself off of his back and rubbed at his throbbing cheek. Nothing broken. He hoped. The priests wouldn't be happy to see him back at the church again…for any reason.

He pulled himself back up to full height, shoving his hands into his pockets as he ventured deeper into the maze of alleys at Nevassa's heart. He had found that if he wandered long enough, he would never get out. But still he spent more and more time wandering the alleys. Too much time. He leaned against a wall and sighed. He had enough coin to last him a few more days probably, But if he didn't find work soon…

Too bad he wasn't pretty enough to be a prostitute. Terrible work, but the money was usually pretty good. There were some things people always wanted. But a crusty, bankrupt merchant wasn't one of those things. He'd have to stick to his own vices and see if he could find someone gullible enough to actually give him the money after he finished a round of dice. It was still too early to try the tavern, but at this rate, he supposed he didn't have much of a choice.

He pulled up the collar of his shirt to guard him from the chilliness of the evening air as he pushed through the maze. He recognized each mark left on the walls. The urchins had their own language, and while he wasn't the best at memorizing pictures, he knew what he needed to. A fox. They were talking about some trouble. An eye. Keep out of sight if you can. A pair of figures. Don't be alone at night. Apparently things were happening that he kept missing, but then again, he tried not to be around this place if he didn't have to be. Well, he didn't _have_ to be now, and he didn't want to be… What the hell was he even doing with his life? That was the only answer he could think of, and he supposed it made sense. No one chose to be a bum.

A flash of light caught his eye. He figured it could have been a firework or thief aspiring to be a mage. Who knew with these kids anymore? But it intrigued him. It shouldn't have, and he knew it, but he just had to know what it meant. Maybe it was the sign he had been looking for. Or maybe someone would finally kill him. More than likely, he just wanted to delay another failed round of dice. Cautiously, he edged forward and peered around a corner. He expected soldiers or thugs or skinny kids trying a little too hard to entertain themselves.

But there was a girl.

From the glow emulating from her hands, he could see tears pouring down her face almost like starlight. Her hair was like the moon. Her face was like the sun. Everything about her glowed in a way, and he couldn't help but stare at her and her alone. It took a moment for the awe to wear off, and then he noticed a second girl, naked except for a thin shawl draped haphazardly over her emaciated frame. She was covered in so much blood that he couldn't tell where the origin of it was.

Then the light in the girl's hands flickered and began to fade. She tried desperately to push herself creating sparks and then nothing, but Nolan saw a look in her eyes that was all too familiar. He rushed forward and pulled the girl back just in time for her to vomit all over the bloodstained ground. She didn't resist against him, but she didn't seem to have the strength to do so anyway. "…I can help her…" she slurred, her eyes fighting to stay open.

"She's gone," Nolan said. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but there's not a force in the land that can bring back the dead."

"…he can. And he will. Sooner than you might think…"

"What are you even talking about?"

The girl heaved again, and this time, Nolan held back her silver hair with one hand and rubbed her back with the other. "Look…if you stay here, someone's going to think you're looking for trouble. You got a friend to help you out?"

"…s-sothe…"

"Okay. We'll look for him then." He dragged her to her feet and she tried to tug away from him back towards the dead woman. He wasn't about ready to let her. She grabbed onto the wall, seeming to notice for the first time that she was covered in blood."She's dead, sweetheart. You can't fix dead."

"Why?"

"Get in line...plenty of people ask that question, and no one has an answer. If you can figure it out, I'd love to know the answer. I'd also love to know how the hell you did a little magic trick like that. I don't see a tome or a staff on you."

"Why her?" The palm of her hand fell, creating a streak of blood on the wall. She raised it again and let it fall, completing an X. Nolan grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away.

"Why anyone? Everyone dies eventually. ...You see what happened to that girl?"

"...yes."

"You gonna' tell me what happened?"

Tears brimmed in the girl's eyes, and he groaned. "None of that. I can do a lot of things, just not that. Yeah, you're having a rough day, but what's new? The only way to have a good day is to take it from someone else. You just save the tears for when we find your friend."

The girl nodded, her body limp like a doll's as he dragged her along. Every time she breathed, Nolan heard her swallowing back a sob. Once again, he groaned and slowed down enough to pull her onto his back. "If you're going to cry, do it. Just be discreet. I don't wanna' know."

He felt her nod, as she buried her face in the warmth of his back.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Just...don't make a habit of it. I've got more important things to do than tote kids around." 

_Author's Note 2: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm always open for comments and critiques, so please let me know what you think, especially if you believe there's something I can improve upon. I'll go ahead and ask again about the length. I hate reading long chapters myself, but these chapters just turn out rather lengthy. I'm sorry about the general lack of action here as well. I promise things start to pick up soon._


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note 1: Special thanks to my guest reviewer (Lucy) on the last chapter. Your review really motivated me to finish chapter as quickly as possible (despite taking a four day break). And of course, a special thanks to windwarrior2324. He always helps me look over my stuff and listens to me complain about it._

 _Author's Note 2:_ _I'm getting this chapter out a little quicker than my last one because I have nothing else to do at work. It's kind of silly that I'm getting paid to sit at my desk for 8 hours a day and write fanfiction. Living the dream, I suppose. I'm going to try to hammer out three chapters every month. I'm going to shoot for one chapter a week, but that might not happen. I've got my fingers crossed._

 **Fire Emblem: From Dusk Until Dawn**

 **Chapter 3: The Death of a Star**

"That's it! We gotta' leave him."

"But he's still alive. If we get across the river with-"

"Not gonna' do any good for the rest of us if we get caught."

"But what if he squeals?"

"You're right. Get rid of him."

"G-get...but wouldn't it be better to-"

"We're wastin' good time on this. Either we go now, and he gets caught, or we stay behind, and we all get hanged. Last time I checked, one is less than five. Better him than us. I'm sure he understands."

"I...maybe…" .

"You wanna do it, or do I have to get my hands dirty again?"

"Tch...I can do it…"

* * *

"You okay there?" Nolan nudged Edward to get him to sit up straight, and the swordsman responded with a feeble smile before settling back into the axeman's lap, staring at the flickering embers of what remained of their campfire. As he closed his eyes, the smile died on his lips, and he shivered despite the beads of sweat pouring down his forehead. Nolan adjusted the blankets he had wrapped around him, exposing the boy's bare chest and bandaged stomach to the autumn air in.

"Edward?" Leonardo sat on the edge of his seat, reaching out to shake his friend's shoulder. "What's wrong? If something's bothering you, don't try to keep it to yourself. This isn't the time to be stubborn."

"Just...a weird dream," he muttered without opening his eyes. He shivered signaling Nolan to reform his cocoon of blankets. "Or a memory… I dunno'...my head's doing all kinds of back flips."

After removing his woolen gloves, Nolan used the back of his hand to feel Edward's forehead. He yanked it back almost immediately. "If we threw you into the river, you might turn it into a hot spring…"

"Or it might just kill me. I think I'm fine with that at this point...I hear hell is nice this time of year."

"You heard wrong."

"We need to get him inside somewhere soon," Micaiah stated. "If he spends another couple of nights in the cold like this-"

"I could probably bribe a priest to help us," Sothe offered. "People will keep quiet for good money, and a lot of the churches around here could use the extra coin. If they have to choose between their fear of Begnion and gold-"

"Anything we can pay them, Begnion can pay more. I wouldn't trust someone based on funds alone. Fear is a lot more powerful than you might think."

"You let me worry about money. I've got us covered."

"Oh really?"

Nolan cleared his throat. "She's right. We shouldn't trust anyone based on money alone. I may know a few people who can help us, but they're not around here. We'll have to go a bit further. If we sacrifice a few hours of sleep, we might be able to get to the city before this time tomorrow. If we want to move any faster, we'll need a horse to help move him."

"You guys are talking about me like I'm already dead again," Edward murmured, rolling his face against Nolan's chest. "I'm not dead yet."

"Well, pretend you are and go back to sleep." Nolan placed a hand over the boy's head, ruffling his hair. Edward made some sort of sound of protest before inhaling deeply and falling silent again.

"You should take him into town tonight." Micaiah folded her hands into her lap, tracing the wrinkles in her tunic. "If his fever gets much worse, I won't be able to do anything about it. If I stay here, there shouldn't be any trouble."

"Separating could cause some issues." Leonardo glanced from Edward to Micaiah, shoving his hands into his pockets for warmth. "We've just now reunited for the first time in...weeks…"

"Micaiah, I'm going to be straight with you," Nolan started, his voice stern and low, "if we were to leave you now, we probably wouldn't see you ever again. That's not a paranoid old man talking. That's a man who knows how you work talking. We're not going to let you get rid of us. If we wanted to separate, we would." He cradled Edward's head against his chest. "We'll figure it out, even if we have to do something a little less than reputable."

Frowning, the light mage rummaged through her bag and selected a bruised apple from the bottom. The poor condition of the fruit's skin obscured her reflection enough to make her wonder if she still looked human to the rest of the world. She could feel her heart beating and knew that meant she was alive, a living thing, but the faceless blob before her looked more like an obstacle, a growth surviving off time borrowed from someone else. When she glanced over at Edward, he had a subtle grimace on his face yet again, his mind in a different plane of existence entirely.

"Can I use your knife, Sothe?" she asked, turning the apple over in her hands.

"Sure." He flipped one out of his belt and handed it to her handle first. "Careful. I just sharpened it."

"I'm aware that knives are usually sharp." She rolled her eyes before taking the utensil from him, tossing him the apple in the process. In one clean motion, she pulled her hair back with one hand and began to saw through it. Sothe lunged at her, wrenching the knife from her hands.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

A severed chunk of hair fell down Micaiah's back, the silver strands twinkling in the dying firelight. What remained of her hair now fell around her eyes and ears like the hood of a cloak. "Begnion is looking for a silver-haired maiden. If I no longer have silver hair or look like a maiden then they have no reason to suspect me."

"You don't have to mutilate-"

"It's just hair, Sothe. It will grow back. If I have to look a little boyish, so be it. What's the problem?"

"You're acting on impulses without thinking. It's stupid."

"Let me finish."

"...Over my dead body." He sheathed his knife in his belt.

"It's just hair," she muttered again. She ran her fingers through it little by little, pulling at stray strands. Finally, she brushed away what had fallen into her lap. "The damage is done anyway. I can't take it back."

The group sat in silence, Sothe stewing as he stoked the fire over and over again. The embers would rear up for a moment only to fall back into a cold, lightless slumber once more. Micaiah stared at him for a moment, but he refused to look up at her. Finally the flames rose up again into a paltry glow, and the shadows retreated. The log Nolan sat on creaked as he shifted under the weight of the tension. Edward snored softly against him. Leonardo's slender frame rose before the group, flicking a knife he had drawn from his boot open.

"It's your turn to get firewood," he told Sothe.

"Don't you even think about it, Leonardo." The rogue rose as well.

"How short would you like it?" .

Sothe stepped in front of him. "I already said-"

"I wasn't talking to you." In that moment, the way the embers cast the shadows of the young man caused Sothe's to shrink, and the archer seemed to be a head taller than even the trees around them. The ice in his voice forced Sothe to retreat to the warmth of the fire, but he didn't sit. "Micaiah? How short?"

"All of it."

* * *

Micaiah gazed down into the river, her reflection illuminated by what few moonbeams managed to peek through the cloudy sky. Without its length, her hair seemed to have lost its silvery shimmer entirely. Now barely an inch of it was left, faded into a dull gray like the rest of the world around her, and if it wasn't for the delicate youth of her face, she might have been inclined to think she was more of an old man than a boy. But her eyes… She shut them and opened them several times. She always thought they were the only part of her that seemed to change, but this time they were the only part that hadn't. She welcomed the familiarity with open arms, even if it was that same familiarity she feared. **  
**

"I had it handled, Micaiah," Sothe said from behind her. He tried to drape a cloak over her shoulders, but she shied away.

"You know as well as I do that I needed to do this. I stick out like a sore thumb. Edward needs to live more than I need my vanity."

"Yes, but mutilating yourself-"

"It's just hair, Sothe."

"No it's not. It's this idea that you _have_ to be a martyr. If you give all of yourself away, there won't be anything left. You need to be careful."

"Why do we exist if not to give? I could run off on my own, have a family, and live my life. I could live to please myself, but in the end, what will I have?"

"A full heart. Lots of memories. Your life doesn't have to be nothing but empty suffering."

"I have a power that is a gift just as much as it's a burden. The goddess chose me for this because she knows I can handle it."

"You seem to think that you can counteract your suffering by giving yourself away, but it doesn't work, does it? You always hurt no matter how much you help. But you don't have to always be a victim, Micaiah. Turn the tables. Let someone else suffer."

"It's not that simple."

"It can be. If you had let me handle this situation in the first place, we wouldn't be having this conversation now."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I have my resources to keep all of this under control. One more week, and we would have been fine."

"…you always say you can handle things. Always. But what is it you're actually doing? I want to think that you have good intentions and that you're doing everything in your power to do the right thing, but sometimes I just…don't know…"

"I'm not murdering people and looting their corpses if that's what you're imagining."

"Then where do you get all of your 'gold' from?"

"Jobs."

"What kind of jobs?"

Sothe leaned down on Micaiah from behind, gripping her shoulders with enough force to keep her from running. She squirmed against him, and he very quickly wrapped his arms around her, resting his head beside hers."You would just worry if I told you everything. Look… I deal with information, and information pays well. Information is what wins wars, and that's what I aim to do. You're sweet. You're an icon that people can get behind, but you don't know the first thing about fighting these kinds of battles."

"I want to believe I raised you to be better than some low-life who hurts others, but if that's what you're doing-"

"There's a place for kindness, and there's a place for action. This is why I don't talk about the kind of work I do. If you had bothered to come out of hiding for the last war, maybe you would know a thing or two about it."

"Oh…so that's what this is about then. It's not about me or you. It's about _him_." She tore herself away from him, spitting the final word out like a curse at Sothe's feet.

The rogue rubbed his forehead. "No. It's not. But you're probably going to make it about him because you can't just let him go."

"And neither can you."

"He was a real hero unlike us. We're no better than the raccoons that loot garbage bins at night. He stopped the last war before things could get any worse. We're making things worse. Imagine what would have happened if-"

"If what? If he had allowed Daein to continue to suffer? Things wouldn't be any different. Ashnard would have killed people. Leonard would have lost his parents. Edward would have lost his friends. Nolan would have lost his family. Innocent Daein soldiers would still be treated like prisoners or slaves. We would still be living like this even if the great general Ike hadn't come to 'save the day.' He just hastened the process and ended his own suffering."

"He got rid of Ashnard!"

"And look at this country now. People are starving. Begnion is crushing us and slaughtering others. But I'm sure Crimea is doing much better now. Probably trading resources, rebuilding what they lost, trying to move on. But we're stuck in the same awful past as before. And it's _his_ fault, Sothe."

"Maybe if you had fought for-"

"…for what? The right side? I stayed here because my friends needed me. I didn't run away like you. "

"I was looking for something better. For you! But you chose to hide! Do you honestly think you helped anyone by disappearing?!" Sothe let his frustration simmer, to allow Micaiah some time to formulate a response, but she remained silent. "If you don't stop hiding, people like Edward will continue to throw their lives away for a useless shadow."

"Don't you dare talk about him!" she shrieked, her entire body trembling with rage. She whipped around, thrusting both of her hands against his chest. The force of her attack wasn't enough to knock him down, but it did send him back several steps. "You weren't even there to help. The rest of us watched him get hurt. We _all_ tried to save him. We _all_ sat next to him for days while _you_ were off playing spy! So don't you dare criticize us! We're a family, and families are there for each other. Family is _always_ more important than information!"

"Micaiah...y-you know I didn't mean it like-"

"No. I'm sure you didn't, but it sure sounded that way. Next time, think before you speak." She could feel him reaching after her as she hurried back towards the camp, but he hesitated, and that gave her more than enough time to escape.

 _Perhaps you should take your own advice, Micaiah._

* * *

"Three days, and you still haven't gotten any better…"

By now Leonardo could see that Nolan was sweating, and he certainly had a reason to do so. The rush was enough to set even his heart pounding, to remind him that he was alive and that he had a reason to live. He would do anything in his power to stretch out this moment as long as possible, to live it without any regrets or fear. He set down another card into the set he had lined up before him.

"You're losing your touch, old man."

"You're cheating," Nolan growled, reaching for another card from their pile. "I don't know how you're doing it, but you're cheating."

"I know for a fact that _you're_ cheating, and you're still losing. As I said, you're losing your touch."

"Somehow I doubt that."

Leonardo set down another card. "That's a Jehanna sequence if I'm not mistaken, doesn't that mean that I-"

"Fine! I concede. Are you happy now?"

"Very. My pride thanks you."

"Maybe next time you'll be able to win without Edward's assistance," Sothe muttered off-handedly as he cleaned his knives with a rag.

Nolan turned around, his face clouded with rage as he glowered down at a rather nervous, bed-ridden Edward. "…you wouldn't let me play. So I invited myself," the swordsman admitted with a sheepish shrug.

For a moment, the axeman looked as though he were contemplating which circle of hell he would go to for smothering a sick boy and whether or not it would be worth it. "You're supposed to be sleeping."

"I've been sleeping for four days. I've slept so much that every time I dream, I see you screaming at me to sleep because apparently I can't even dream that I'm awake. You should let me do something before I go crazy."

"Not until I know for certain that you're not going to get sick again. The infection is still clearing up," Nolan scolded. "You can last another 12 hours if you've lasted this long. I could knock you out if you think that would make this a little more bearable."

"Don't be a sore loser," Leonardo scolded. "I learned to cheat from the best. You should be proud."

"You're not supposed to cheat against me."

"But you can against me?"

Admittedly, getting into town with boyish Micaiah hadn't been difficult. No one questioned why their little group holed themselves up in the town's inn. The priest believed a not entirely untrue story about a surprise bandit attack and happily treated Edward. What soldiers they did encounter seemed to acknowledge their presence about as much as they acknowledged the rocks or trees. At last their group was invisible until they decided to cause trouble again. Their newfound invisibility gave Edward some much needed rest, and after wrestling with it for a few days, his fever had finally broken. Even so, everyone wanted to wait a full fever-free day before heading out once more.

Micaiah sat by the window. They were lucky to have gotten a room like this for as long as they had had it. It had been so long since she had slept in an actual bed that she had almost forgotten what it was like. Beautiful. There was still a lingering sense of doom in her dreams, but none of her nightmares had been as vivid as they had been in the past few weeks. She supposed she had that to be grateful for at least. But there was something just…different about this town. The people glowed with a brilliance she hadn't seen in years. The soldiers kept to themselves as well. Naturally she saw them marching through the streets at almost every opportunity, but they weren't beating old men in the streets or harassing ladies and their children.

Citizens below her gaze bustled about, minding their own business because they had nothing else to worry about. If this had been any other year, they might have thrown a festival for the decent fall harvest. But that was where Begnion's lingering presence reared its ugly head. This wasn't a safe place. It was just an illusion of safety. Soldiers still sat in the alleyways, watching their every move, waiting for them to screw up.

"If your fever stays gone until tomorrow morning, we'll leave," Nolan said. "But that should give you more motivation to rest."

"I'll go crazy before then. I might have already lost it!"

"My offer to knock you out still stands."

"Leonardo and I will go into town for some supplies," Micaiah offered, grabbing her cap off of the seat beside her. She positioned it over her head, hiding what little of her hair remained. The clothes Sothe had "found" for her could have belonged to a child. They still hung loosely on her frame however. While hiding her curves had been a bit of a challenge, she found that the oversized jacket of her ensemble was sufficient enough. She couldn't say she felt pretty, but Nolan assured her that she had enough boyish charm to turn a few heads. "And then we'll be ready to move on once you're feeling up to it."

"I'm feeling up to it now."

"Once Nolan feels you're up to it."

"Take some gold," Sothe told her as he rummaged through his bag. "I've got more than enough."

"I'm fine. Thanks."

Leonardo chuckled, trying to shield himself from Sothe's icy glare. "There's no telling where that gold came from." He unsteadily rose to his feet, picking up his bow and bag in the process.

"It's good gold. I don't know why none of you believe me. Leo, you of all people should be grateful to be staying in such a nice place after living in the gutter for so long."

The archer froze, raising an eyebrow. "If you want to take a jab at my family's wealth, you'll have to try better than that. I lived in a military academy for half my life. I haven't slept in a 'nice place' since I was a toddler. I'm grateful for a bed as much as the rest of you."

"Well, I wasn't jabbing at you, your highness. Try not to take everything so personally. Just be grateful we have a place to stay at all."

"Are you sure you want me to come?" Leonardo asked Micaiah as he edged towards the door.

"Yes. Come on. We'll make a quick trip of it." Micaiah hurried from the room without bothering to look back. Meanwhile, Leonardo looked to each of his remaining companions, and only Sothe didn't return his worried glance.

"We'll…try to be back within in an hour or so."

* * *

Leonardo had no qualms with walking in silence. In fact, he enjoyed the thought of having a concise goal with no need for frivolous excess of speech, but this wasn't a comfortable, determined silence. It was one brought on by his inability to address the underlying problem of the situation. But the blame didn't fall on him alone. No one in their little group knew exactly what to say to heal the tension between Sothe and Micaiah. Nolan usually said to give these things time; the anger would die away after a while. But Leo could tell that Micaiah hated allowing her anger to seethe. The pallor of her face wasn't just from the lack of sun.

"Why me?" he asked.

That question shook Micaiah from her own thoughts. "What do you mean?"

"Usually you want to be alone with Nolan or Sothe. I'm a rather strange choice given your history."

"You don't pry unless I ask you to. And I'm always grateful for that."

"So you wanted quiet company? You'll have to forgive me for reading the situation incorrectly."

"I don't know what I want right now." She hugged her arms even though her coat provided more than enough warmth from the crisp air. No one paid them any mind as they wandered through the streets, just two boys out on an errand.

"Well…if I may, I would like to offer a few words of advice."

Micaiah hesitated.

"I promise I won't scold you. However if you would merely like to enjoy my company, I can keep quiet."

"Go ahead. I'll listen."

"People change, for better or worse, and you can't stop that. If you care about that person, and if you trust that they care about you, then in the end, you shouldn't have to worry about the change."

"And what if they don't care about you?"

"Sothe cares about you." Leonardo offered her a smile.

"And how do you know that?"

"I try to notice people even if I'm not good at understanding them. Sothe cares about you, but he wants to prove to you that he doesn't need you. You've protected him for a long time, and now he wants to return the favor. He just has to find out how to evolve from the protected into the protector. The person he wants to be is a combination of what you've taught him and...what he observed from General Ike. I believe that has created some conflict in his character."

"I think there's more to it than that."

"Perhaps, but you'll wear yourself out searching for the whole truth."

"I still don't know where he goes when he disappears."

"Micaiah, I know I don't fully understand what's going on, and I can't possibly hope to; you've known him for much longer than I have. Sothe and I don't always get along, but I know he always has what he thinks is best for us on his heart. I trust that he's a good man, and I can work with him despite our differences. Does that help a bit?"

The light mage shook her head, pursing her lips in thought. "…thank you for trying at least. But our issues run a little deeper than we both probably realized."

"I'm sorry I can't be of more help. I like to think I know all of you like the back of my hand, but sometimes I realize I don't know you very well at all."

"I'm sure you know me pretty well. You say you notice people…why don't tell me about myself?" _Distract me._

"O-Oh well…" Leonardo cleared his throat as they walked. "…you're a bit of a grey pacifist. You believe in nonviolence, but you will retaliate if the loss of life will be greater than if you don't fight. You try to keep civilians out of fights if at all possible because you believe there's no point in fighting if the lifeblood of a country disappears. Your strategies use the environment to your advantage without severely damaging it because you're used to working with small groups. While it isn't the most efficient strategy, it has worked for you in the past. With some refining it could-"

"What's my favorite color?"

"Hm?"

"My favorite color? Or my favorite food? Or my hobbies? You're such a sweet young man, Leonardo, but you're very…rigid. We're your family. Not your comrades."

"You're both," Leonardo answered quietly. They walked in uncomfortable silence for a moment before he added, "…you like orange and yellow."

"Leo…"

"And you really only like fresh foods, especially peaches, but you don't get to eat them often because they don't grow well in this half of the country. And you started dancing during the war. The performers you were traveling with taught you how, and you're actually rather good, but you don't have much of a reason to dance now, so you don't."

Micaiah grinned when she noticed her friend had turned bright red. He stared up at the clouded sky to try and hide some of his discomfort, but she saw right through him. "Why didn't you just say that to begin with?"

"I notice things, but I can't always tell you what's the most important. I really do care about people, especially all of you. I'm just not…I can't… I don't know how to express it. I wish I were better at it, but I'm not, so you'll have to forgive me for being…rigid."

"Oh, Leo…" Micaiah was tempted to take his hand and kiss his cheek, but she didn't want to risk drawing unnecessary attention towards them. "Don't you ever change."

"You can't stop me." His eyes twinkled for quite possibly the first time since she had met him, and he almost smiled, but the feeling was short-lived. He was content returning to a comfortable, determined silence, but he wasn't allowed to. He suddenly had to push Micaiah towards the side of the road to avoid a group of soldiers marching towards the town square. Citizens whispered among themselves, several choosing to follow after the ever-growing crowd.

"…something must have happened," the archer muttered.

"We should check. We may have to leave sooner than we had hoped."

"It may just be a drill."

"Well... any information is good information apparently. Come on..."

The duo followed the tail-end of a crowd, eventually weaving their way into the center of the mob to avoid detection a bit more easily. Before them, on a makeshift, wooden platform stood two Begnion guards on either side of a boy, likely a page in training. His entire body trembled as he unraveled a scroll. For a moment, he stood before the crowd, his mouth agape, the words trapped in his mouth. The guard on his left tapped his lance on the ground, causing the boy to wince. He cleared his throat and started to speak in a voice barely louder than the sound of a butterfly's wings. The guard on his right barked something indistinct, and he very quickly started over, screaming his announcement in a strained, prepubescent voice.

"On this autumn day of the sixteenth year of Apostle Sanaki's reign, let it be known that the Silver-Haired Maiden, Micaiah of Daein, was captured, charged with crimes against Daein and Begnion, and executed! A-Any information leading to the capture of her comrades will be handsomely rewarded by Jarod, Commander of the Begnion Occupational Army!"

For a moment, the crowd stopped breathing. The boy rolled up his scroll, eyes darting to the guards on either side of him as they stood as still as statues. It wasn't until the people started to talk that the soldiers chose to react.

"Move it! Nothing else to be said. If you want to see for yourself, you can head to Tyris."

Leonardo looked over to Micaiah who had grown white as a sheet. He grabbed her hand and barreled through the crowd without waiting for another invitation to leave. Unfortunately, Micaiah's energy came only in a short burst, and before long, she started lagging behind, forcing the archer to a stop. He pulled her to the side of the road once more and embraced her. Though her breathing was eerily steady, he could feel her heart pounding in her chest. "It's okay," he whispered, holding her tight despite the stares of a few bystanders. "It's not you…"

"How did they know my name?"

"I...don't know. It might have slipped in Nevassa. This could very well be a trap to lure us there."

"Or a mistake, and some poor girl is d...dead."

"This isn't something we should talk about here. Catch your breath and steel yourself, but we need to hurry back and let the others-"

"Hey! What do you boys think you're plotting over here?" A guard, not much older than both of them, had noticed their lingering and stopped not five feet from them with a small posse of soldiers behind him. He wasn't a particularly tall young man; in fact, his physique was rather unimpressive, all around, but he spoke with a clear, resonant voice that drew all eyes to him.

Micaiah almost vomited. Trembling, she tried to pull away from Leonardo, but he held her fast with one arm. Their hesitation to respond darkened the frown on the young guard's face. Like them, he wore dark circles under his black eyes, accentuated by the dark, immaculate hair that framed his face. His nails shined with the same glimmer his polished armor did. He didn't smell of the same steel and sweat of the other guards. Leonardo wasn't sure what he smelled, but it wasn't war. Maybe vanilla or honey.

"You'll have to forgive me. I tend to get carried away around precious things." Leonardo brought Micaiah's hand to his lips and kissed it without missing another beat. "We didn't mean to disturb the peace. We'll go find ourselves a room."

The young soldier's ears turned bright red as Leonardo snaked an arm around Micaiah's hips, promenading her off down the road. He flashed a huge, Edward-esque grin back at the man as they retreated. "It won't happen again!"

And they didn't run. But it took every fiber in their being not to as the laughter of the guards followed them all the way back to the inn.

* * *

 _Author's Note 3: I promise we're going to get to some action soon. Originally this chapter had another 2 or 3 scenes in it, and I noticed that before editing it was almost 20 pages long. I didn't want to end up having a 10,000 word chapter, so I cut it off at the most reasonable place. Now, I can give proper attention to the upcoming scenes because so far, they're some of my favorite._

 _Author's Note 4: If any of you would like to guess who the "mysterious chatter" belongs to in any of the chapters, that'd be cool. So far, it has been different every time. It's a theme I hope to continue until I reveal some of the peeps behind the scenes._

 _As always, I'm open for comments, concerns, critiques, questions...etc. I'd love to know what you think I could do better to make reading more enjoyable._


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note 1:_ _Glad to see the story has 4 followers now! That's very exciting for me. Thanks, guys!_

 _Author's Note 2: Yeesh...editing this chapter was like pulling teeth, and I don't even know what it was about it. I think it has something to do with "this was kind of a creative/funny plan two months ago," and now I regretted all of my life choices. I spent about a week trying to organize it and ended up removing about 3000 words worth of material. This is also the chapter that I lost during the challenge (because of some corrupted files) and had to rewrite from scratch. (I did a 5,000 word marathon one Saturday to play catch-up.) But I finally sat down and told myself to finish it. So it's a late update, but it's here at last!_

 **Fire Emblem: From Dusk Until Dawn  
Chapter 4: The Dawn Brigade**

No one returning from Tyris smiled.

Groups of merchants, performers, mercenaries, and farmers alike passed Micaiah's group throughout the morning of the next day, all with their eyes downcast and voices low, muttering in grey, unintelligible drones. Edward had tried in vain to converse with his comrades, but even his energy couldn't overpower the dread poisoning the atmosphere. If anything, it sickened him the most.

Sothe lead the group, his pace unhurried but deliberate. Conscientious of Edward's still recovering state, he stopped several times along the side of the road to rest while the others fidgeted with anticipation of the next few miles. More deadened eyes. More soundless voices. More grey skies. Sothe built a wall between himself and travelers and a bigger one between himself and his allies, keeping his eyes set on the town's walls now in full view from a distance.

"We're almost there," Edward muttered. "We don't need to stop again. At this rate, we'll all die of old age before I die of exhaustion."

"If there's going to be a battle, you need to be ready. You're probably out of practice after being sick for so long." Sothe glanced down at the growing shadow of a tree beside them. The leaves ebbed and flowed with the breeze, some breaking free of the limbs and fluttering to the ground where many of them already lay in a slain heap. "It's better if we don't rush into this."

"He's right." Leonardo squinted, trying to note how many guards stood at the entrance. They had passed a few groups coming and going on their journey there. Apparently Tyris was the hub for most of the soldiers in this area. They rotated in the surrounding villages and towns. Unfortunately, that meant they couldn't linger much longer and risk becoming "familiar faces." "However, the sooner we finish this, the better."

"We'll go when Micaiah's ready."

The light mage blinked, looking over towards the rogue. By now, beads of sweat had started to form on his forehead even though goosebumps lined his arms. He noticed her gaze before too long and crouched down, untying and then retying his boots. "You're the one that wanted to come here. It's your call," he muttered.

"I'm ready," she answered.

But she wasn't. She had never really known how to prepare herself for death, her own or anyone else's. And somehow, this was both. She expected death to be a surprise. Someday, she would die, and that would be the end. It could be an accident, natural or planned. It could be at her own hand, someone else's, or the goddesses. She merely knew it was inevitable...as it was for everyone. She found it easier to think about the end of her own life rather than anyone else's, especially her friends. In the end, she wouldn't need to deal with the after effects of her own death.

But the goddess seemed to think it would be interesting if she had to.

They didn't have to walk through the front gates to see her, the fake Micaiah. And they smelled her long before they saw her. The town square was devoid of people with the exception of two guards and the corpse. She didn't look much like Micaiah, the real one. She stood taller even hunched over, contorted and rigid, and had curves that filled out the modest dress she wore. No one could mistake her for a boy. Her eyes were blue like her skin and still wide with shock, probably from the tightened noose still stuck around her neck. But her silver hair was unmistakable, cascading down her shoulders like starlight.

"She's just a kid…" Edward swallowed.

Nolan clapped a hand over Micaiah's eyes and led them past the guards and display, keeping his eyes down. "We need to go to a tavern," he told them, whispering in the same grey drone that had infected the travelers on the way to Tyris. "And then we need to leave. We shouldn't be here long."

Sloppy laughter filled the area followed by the ending to a poorly improvised drinking song. Two guards appeared at the end of the road, one clinging to the other for support. The one that could walk without assistance didn't even crack a smile.

"You're making a fool of yourself," he spat.

Micaiah stiffened underneath Nolan's touch."Leo, it's him."

"Come on, Cap. Come on! We've only got an hour left before our shift! You should enjoy the city while you can!" The young guard somehow regained enough of his balance to stand up straight and began dragging his friend through the square, ramming into herds of people mulling about, trying to avoid the display at all costs. His friend followed behind stiffly, his brow set in a heavy frown.

"Ravi, I mean it. I don't have any interest in your debauchery."

"You've been such a bummer ever since you got that promotion, ya' know that?."

It was at that moment that Leonardo understood what Micaiah had said. He very quickly tried to turn and hide his face, but he had already made eye contact with both of the soldiers, and he hadn't torn his gaze away from the sober man nearly quickly enough. The more vibrant of the two steered his friend towards their little group, stopping just inches away from the archer. "Well if it isn't your mischievous little friend, Ollie." When he leaned down, Leonardo could smell the fermentation on his breath. "What have you been up to?"

The archer swallowed, forcing a nervous smile onto his face as he looked from one man to the next. The captain looked much taller up close, but there was no mistaking it. He had the same dark hair, dark eyes, tired gaze… "St-staying out of trouble… Eheheh…" Leo held up both of his hands and shoved them into his pockets. "Keeping them to myself. See?"

"You been touching things you shouldn't again?" Edward scolded without missing a beat. "You know what Nolan's told you about that." He looped an arm around his friend's neck, mirroring the soldier duo before them. "Just ignore him, kind Sir. He's a little touched in the head."

"I can think of a few things the Cap would let him touch. And no one would have to know," Ravi started, taking Leo's face into his hands, examining him like a fine cut of meat from the butcher. "Whaddya' say?"

"No touching," Nolan growled, releasing Micaiah into Sothe's care to step forward. "We don't have any business with you, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped fondling my boy."

"Of course." The captain removed his friend from Leo, keeping a firm grip on his hair. "He's an idiot and a drunk, and I can't seem to fix either of those things. Please forgive us."

"A-All's forgiven, Sir." Leonardo tipped his head down, mostly to hide the redness in his cheeks.

"You weren't half this bashful yesterday. Don't do so well with an audience do ya'?" Ravi winked, and the captain gave his hair a sharp tug, eliciting a cry from his lips. Now red from ear to ear, the captain chose to retreat, his friend still babbling.

"I can't believe you. You have half an hour to sober up. I mean it."

Leonardo let out a sigh of relief, but he couldn't chase away Nolan's presence from behind him. "Have you been making friends?" the axeman asked.

"Micaiah and I might have accidentally started an affair yesterday."

"Lovely...just what we need...a power couple."

Sothe stiffened, eyeing the archer through venomous, slitted eyes.

Micaiah's eyes returned to the girl in the square, trying to imagine that she merely slept. In twenty minutes or an hour, she would awaken, slip the noose from her neck, and return to her friends or family; and they wouldn't have to live in the shadow of her death or in fear of asking to give her a proper burial. But staring at her for as long as she did allowed reality to set in bit by bit. The smell. The girl's empty eyes. Unblinking. Unchanging. Still terrified. "W-We can't leave her like this," she muttered, her mouse-like voice almost carried away on the wind.

"...Micaiah," Nolan started. "It might not be-"

"We should move onto the tavern," Sothe said. "Being out here just isn't...if we stare too long, they'll think we're up to something. Besides, we shouldn't risk our lives for a body."

"You'd risk your lives for mine," Micaiah told him.

"Aren't we supposed to be staying out of trouble?"

"Please, stop. Both of you." Nolan took Micaiah by the shoulders, holding her at arm's length. For a while, his mouth hung open, his mind still searching for the words of wisdom he could usually spout out, but nothing came to him. She stared back at him with silence, even her clouded orange eyes somehow brighter than the world around them.

"I...might have an idea…" Leonardo finally said, breaking the silence.

"I definitely have an idea," Edward piped in, still dragging Leonardo around by the shoulders. Everyone's head snapped in their direction, and the swordsman offered them a smile that wasn't quite strong enough to chase away the grey; however, Leonardo couldn't look up from his feet. "Let us handle it."

* * *

 _One...two...three...four...five..._

Inaction was the simplest way to stay out of trouble; blend in, observe, hide, run away… Being invisible was easy as long as one didn't care enough to act or could refrain from doing so even under intense pressure. But that meant ignoring the darkening skies preparing for the inevitable storm, the literal stench of death wafting through the alleys. Turning a blind eye was easy until the events of the world started to infect the other senses. By then, one wanted and needed to act, but it was too late.

Leonardo recognized that he understood this concept, but he didn't have to appreciate it. Remaining a faceless cog in the wheels of time was beginning to look like the best way to keep his dignity intact. _Don't vomit._

"I don't even know what hips he wants me to sway," he grumbled under his breath. One pint of whatever passed for an alcoholic beverage at the tavern had been enough to get him to agree to strut down the streets in the icy wind wearing what Sothe considered to be "clothing." With his arms and midriff exposed, he was beginning to wonder if the rogue actually borrowed his clothing from a prostitute. A second pint was required to give him enough confidence to follow through, and now he was beginning to wish he had had a third, but the stuff was so vile that he felt as though he could wilt a forest with the smell on his breath. _Hips, Leo. Hips._ Edward's voice echoed in his head.

 _...what hips?_

He finally spied his target, standing at the edge of an alley, tapping his foot impatiently. Waiting? He wasn't particularly unattractive. He was taller than even Nolan but slender even under his bulky armor. However, despite his stature, he had a weak, worried gaze that left him pale, almost sickly looking despite his attempts to display authority. Leonardo hugged his arms, feeling the cold despite the thin veil of liquor that kept him moving forward.

"Well well...if it isn't my little buddy…" He felt a pair of powerful arms wrap around his waist from behind, holding him in place with sausage-like fingers locked around his navel. His first instinct was to try and buck the intruder off, but the alcohol helped him relax. "Come back to stare at the captain?"

 _Thirty-two...thirty-three...thirty-four..._

Leonardo fought to wiggle around so he could face his harasser. Finally, he found himself in a position where he could slip his hands around the man's neck. Though the smell of alcohol on the soldier's breath had improved just a bit, he suspected that was because a sickeningly sweet smoke that all but drenched his clothes had masked it. _You should have taken the third drink._ "I can't help myself. He's charming." Worried the man might read through his facade, he buried his face in the guard's neck. The man stiffened, a breath caught in his throat, but he didn't make any effort to stop him.

"Look, Ollie!" he called across the road. "I found him again." In an attempt to be subtle, he lowered his voice just noticeably enough so the people inside the buildings surrounding them wouldn't hear him, though he seemed to think that Leo also couldn't hear him. "He's hammered."

"Stop," the man's sober friend answered, crossing the road in five large strides to pry Leo away once more. He held him at arm's length, admiring him for just a moment before sighing and draping his own cloak over the younger man's shoulders. "What do you think you're doing?"

"A little birdie told my boss that the guards here were complaining about the lack of diversity in the night life. He decided to move me to the brothel here in town. I start tomorrow, but I wanted…to do some sightseeing first." He ran a few fingers through his own hair, tousling it so it fell over one of his eyes.

"Is that so?" He watched Leo shiver again, and fastened the broach of his cloak in place so it wouldn't fall off of his shoulders.

"W-Why don't you show me some things I haven't seen?"

"Now _that_ I'd like to see," Ravi added.

"You're going to be late. Get to your post, or I'll report you to the general."

"I'm _so_ scared. You worried the girl's just gonna' walk away?"

The captain cursed under his breath, taking Leonardo by the shoulders. "How many drinks have you had?"

Now that wasn't a question he had expected. "How much do you charge?" or "Does that alley look dark enough?" were far more fitting options. For a moment, the archer broke character, his body stiff underneath the captain's hands. _Objectify me already_. "I-I…a few. I just do what the boss tells me to," he admitted, wanting to add Edward's name to a very long string of curses.

"And what about your...erm...friend?"

"He's...ah...I don't know where he's at..."

"Then go find him. You shouldn't be out here like this. I can't talk now, but if you come to the barracks in a few hours, I can help you. Until then, try to stay out of the cold. You look ridiculous."

"C'mon, Ollie...we've still got a few minutes. When's the next time you'll find a whore willing to give you the time of day, or are you still worried about going straight to the seventh circle of hell? You know the senators just make that crap up."

 _Seventy-seven...Seventy-eight… You're going to be late._ Leonardo grabbed the captain by the breastplate and pulled him on top of him so their lips connected, just long enough to surprise him, but not long enough to draw in a crowd of voyeurs. _Don't puke._ "I can do anything in a few minutes." _Don't. Puke._ "Going back right now isn't exactly an option."

Leonardo patiently awaited the captain's response, watching his face turn a deep shade of scarlet as his body processed the kiss. He didn't get a chance to respond before Ravi grabbed a fistful of the archer's hair and pulled him back against his own chest. "If you don't I will, Ollie."

"But you're not-"

"It doesn't really matter what does the job as long as the job gets done, right? Besides, I never turn down a free sample, and it'll annoy the hell out of you won't it? Maybe you'll man up and do something about it, eh?"

Leonardo tried to pull his head away from the soldier's grasp, but the man's nails were digging into his scalp, and the archer had no strong desire to lose a clump of hair. He watched for a reaction from the captain, but he couldn't read any frustration or anger. Shock was apparent and expected, but a complete lack of any other emotion left Leo feeling numb aside from the throbbing in his scalp.

"H-Hey…" the archer said. "That kind of hurts."

"Ravi…" the captain started.

"You gonna' stop me?"

 _Ninety-eight...ninety-nine…_

"C'mon, kid. Show me what you got."

 _One hundred._

* * *

"Ma'am, what's that man doing up there?" Micaiah asked. She had picked out a thin, bug-eyed girl from the crowd who had been unable to stop chatting long enough with her friends to breathe. At first, she didn't seem to hear the girl's inquiry, but she lifted her gaze enough from her group to see a cloaked shadow just visible in the evening torchlight, almost to the very top of the watch tower. She screamed, drawing the attention of every person passing in the area.

"That man's climbing the watch tower!"

"Isn't he the envoy visiting from Crimea?" Micaiah asked once more. The young woman certainly heard her, making eye contact very briefly, but rather than responding, she retreated into her group of friends and began whispering once again. By now, most people in the area had noticed the strange man. They began to whisper to each other, while guards scrambled to handle the situation.

"He must be the father of that girl…" Micaiah muttered to herself a bit too loudly as she passed by a group of boys.

"Yeah yeah...they were travelers...I remember seeing her with some guy last week. They must've been from Crimea."

"But didn't Henry say she was from Daein?"

"No no no...he's definitely that guy from Crimea. Brady told me Crimea was going to send an envoy. I remember seeing him around."

"And Martha definitely mentioned something about a daughter."

"You think that girl they executed was his daughter?"

"What's Crimea going to do if he bites the dust?

"Begnion wouldn't go around killing off nobles, would they?"

"He's going to fall!"

The cloaked figure misstepped, losing his grip for a moment before pulling himself up onto a ledge at the very top of the tower. By now, the soft lull of the townspeople's whispers had grown to cries of fright. Some encouraged him to jump. Others begged for him not to. Many were asking for soldiers not to make a mess of him. Before long, he couldn't distinguish one comment from another.

"One sixty-two...one s-sixty-three…" _Tch...Edward…_

Nolan took a deep breath, the cold wind particularly brutal as it battered against his body, penetrating even the thick wool gloves on his hand. Mother Nature apparently wanted him to jump, and he might just lose his grip if he lost anymore feeling in his hands.

"Begnion's going to pay for what they did!" he shouted, letting the wind carry his voice. "Every one of you know it was a mistake! They took her from me too soon!"

"He's definitely that Crimean guy. That's what Leah said."

"Wasn't he supposed to be investigating for the Queen?"

"Maybe he's with the Dawn Brigade!"

 _Dawn Brigade?_ Micaiah paused, only picking up bits and pieces of conversations as she wove through the crowd. She no longer had to feed them bits and pieces of false information. They produced it themselves like machines. But now no one could raech a consensus. Some thought he was some local drunk named Talieu. Others thought he was a diplomat driven to madness. But the Dawn Brigade wasn't a phrase she was familiar with, nor was it something she had time to investigate now. At least the soldiers couldn't seem to decide whether or not it was safe to shoot Nolan down.

"Lovely…"

Micaiah heard a voice from directly behind her, but she had felt his presence first, darker than even the moonless sky. She met his crimson gaze for only a moment before he grabbed her by the shirt and tossed her aside. "Out of my way, brat! All of you! I don't care who he is! Shoot him down! Shoot him down now! Where the hell is that captain?!"

The light mage picked herself up off of the ground, adjusting her cap while still following the man barking orders with her eyes. _Information wins wars_ … No. Now wasn't the time for her to waste valuable energy following a man like that. Not yet. At the very least, she could try to remember his face. As dark as his eyes had been, they were almost equally as frightened, veiled in a thin, fragile mask of anger.

 _Two hundred one...two hundred-_

...Sothe. Micaiah's heart skipped a beat. Her head throbbed, images dancing before her eyes and without thinking her feet forced her to follow the man that had knocked her over.

* * *

"-two…" One man down.

"...two hundred three…" Two men down.

"...two hundred four..." Girl down.

Sothe let the corpse fall to the ground, almost expecting a sigh of relief from it. He removed his cloak, rolled her up in it, and lifted her into his arms, the girl's body almost weightless, but he couldn't escape the rancid smell. He adjusted he scarf over his nose, but there was nothing he could do to keep his eyes from watering. His stomach lurched, and his package slid out of his arms back onto the ground.

"Tch...I'm so sorry…" Seconds continued to pass by in his head. Two behind. Ten behind...fifteen…But he couldn't force himself to move. _Just leave her. Leave her and go. They'll understand. Move. You'll get caught. You'll end up like her._

 _It's your fault._

"I said I don't care who he is. If he's not down in the next thirty seconds, I'll climb up there and throw him off myself!"

Sothe scrambled to pick up the body once more, cursing as if it would make his hands move faster. He had lost track of time, but he knew he was behind. The others wouldn't buy him anymore than they had promised.

"Where's my captain?!"

The man's voice sounded inches and miles away at the same time as it echoed around in his head. _He'll be the one to kill me. This is how I die._

"Sir, I can't find my brother."

 _Micaiah?_

"Get off of me, you brat!" A slap. A yelp.

 _Micaiah._ Sothe resisted the urge to dart towards the sound of her voice, but now he could at least make his feet move. The east side of town. An alley. By the tavern. The escape route seemed a bit more clear in his head now. Another yelp, and a scream...then more screams.

"He fell! Where'd he go?! Someone help! General! General Jarod!"

"But my brother…"

"I said get off of me! Find him!"

 _Get out. Get out. Keep going. Don't stop._ The clocktower at the center of town struck eleven.

 _Three-hundred…three hundred one…_

 _Very, very behind._

* * *

Nolan rolled his shoulder in a wind-up motion several times, trying to find the right amount of pressure to use to ease it back into place, but nothing seemed to work. Micaiah urged him to sit down and worked her fingers along his back, poking and prodding at his neck and shoulders until he let out a sigh of relief. "...we're still early, aren't we?" she asked.

"Yes. They still have a few minutes."

"I saw Sothe leave with her. You don't suppose someone caught him on the road, do you?"

"Micaiah, we can talk about this all night. Let's wait another ten minutes. If they're not here by then, we can go look for them. I'm getting too old to run after all of you kids or pull these crazy, acrobatic stunts. Next time, Edward can jump from the tower, and I'll supervise."

"You volunteered…"

"Don't remind me."

Micaiah wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting against the warmth of his heaving back for just a moment before standing to full height once more to glance behind her. "Someone's coming."

"Our someone or another someone?"

"Leonardo? Edward? Sothe?!" Micaiah scrambled into the woods, leaving Nolan to lumber behind her.

"Guess that answers my question."

Micaiah darted over the frozen ground, her feet finding all the right places to fall to avoid stumbling. She paused for a moment, listening to the emptiness of the forest before changing her direction, only to stop only inches away from the pale, child-like form of Edward. "Eddie, what happened?"

"I-I...can't...carry him anymore. But may-maybe Nolan can...can help…but I-"

"Who, Ed?"

"It was a bad idea, Micky...a bad...why did I-"

"Edward!" She took his face in her hands and forced his eyes to focus on her. Things seemed to click in his mind all at once, and he grabbed her arm, pulling her back from where he had come.

"Leo. He passed out about half a mile back, and I just couldn't carry him all the way here. I didn't leave him far. Where's Nolan?"

"He's coming. What about Sothe?"

"I don't know." Micaiah decided to leave it at that. She could feel Edward's trembling aggravated by the fresh surge of adrenaline running through his veins. "I left him right-hey you! Get away!" His hand fell away from hers, and he was mid-way through drawing his sword on a young woman kneeling beside his fallen comrade. The woman turned slowly, hands raised holding a staff, and met Edward's gaze. "I-I'm just a priestess," she said, her voice smooth and low.

"Then what are you doing out here so late?"

"A-A little bird… I followed a bird. Please...can I help him? I don't think he can breathe."

"Yes. Please." Micaiah placed a hand on Edward's shoulder to calm him. She watched the girl reach for her staff once more and turn to Leo. The priestess hadn't gotten a good look at him yet, but she wasn't sure she wanted to. Instead, she focused on the girl. Plain with fair skin and dark hair, she somehow radiated with a brilliance, the light mage hadn't seen in ages. "What's your name?"

"It's Laura. And...you're the Dawn Brigade...aren't you?"

 _Dawn Brigade._ That name again.

"We...might be…"

* * *

Having wrapped up his wrist and pulled the bandage tight with his teeth, Levail flexed it in a full circle, straining his ears for any unnatural groans or creaks. The injury no longer hurt if he had to put pressure on it, but he needed to be careful. On the bright side, this whole situation had been good for improving his left-handed strength, but it left him feeling a bit flimsy with his good arm. He would have a lot of make-up work to do if he planned on getting back to his former level of skill, and that was provided he didn't hurt himself again.

He could hear the others training not too far, their shouts and applause easily echoing through the halls of the halls of Sienne's training facilities. He had heard rumors that there were places in the old palaces and even the cathedral where the architecture allowed the sound of a mouse's footsteps to carry loud and clear. He could only imagine what the grunts and cries of his comrades would sound like with such amplification. Chuckling, he reached for his lance and tested how the extra weight affected the range of motion of his injured wrist.

He should have been grateful. If he had injured himself abroad, he wouldn't have an opportunity like this to recover. The capital was supposed to be a good place to be at that moment. Daein wasn't exactly prosperous, and he had heard horror stories of how the soldiers were treated over there. He wasn't surprised; an occupying nation would be met with some hostility, but they weren't the villains in all of this. That was their dead king's fault… He supposed there was no glory for a soldier after a war, especially when things were as peaceful as they were now. Here he was with the perfect opportunity to allow himself to get fat just like the senators.

"Are you just lazing around?" .

The young soldier recognized the elegant hostility of the voice immediately and rose to his feet, standing at attention. "Forgive me, Senator Lekain. I was told by the healer that I can train only in 40 minute intervals. I'll return to the field shortly, Sir."

The Senator wasn't a particularly tall man. Many soldiers believed he wore heels under his robes to add a few inches to his stature, but his presence filled the room. There were times when he seemed even bigger than the cathedral itself; he could hold the capital in the palm of his hand like Ashera and level buildings with his thumb. When the man smiled, Levail felt his thumb hovering over his head.

"Rather than sit there like a sloth, why don't you help me with a little errand? You were rather good at those when you were a child, but now that you've grown, I can't say I've seen you around as much. Didn't you make me a promise?"

Levail swallowed, his stance still as stiff as a corpse's. "Of course. I-I apologize, Sir… I should…I can help you with whatever you need."

"That would be wonderful. It shouldn't take long. If you're quick, you can be back before you're even missed. But if I'm being perfectly honest, you should be careful with that injury. We wouldn't want you falling apart anytime soon."

"O-Of course not…S-Sir…" He didn't want to risk falling from attention because Lekain's temper wasn't uncommon knowledge among the soldiers. But the muscles in his back were beginning to cramp, and he couldn't hide the discomfort on his face.

"You haven't changed much, Levail. I like that about you."

Suddenly the young soldier felt a pair of hands on his shoulders, pressing down softly to ease him from his stance. "Senator," a deep voice laced with a honey-like sweetness greeted. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"General Zelgius…" Lekain's voice fell and with it, his stature shrunk ever so subtly. But now Levail felt as though two hands had wrapped around his throat. His heart threatened to leap from his chest as Zelgius tightened his grip on his shoulders. "I need to borrow this one for about half an hour. My staff hasn't been quite as efficient as they need to-"

"I'm afraid my soldiers aren't errand boys."

"He's not doing anything else. I don't see why he can't help me. It's not as though you own these men. They belong to the empire. And last time I checked, the senators are part of what runs the empire."

"The Apostle runs the empire," Zelgius reminded him. "And all of us serve her. You would be wise to keep that in mind." After some thought, he released his grip from Levail's shoulders."Besides, he's on an assignment for the Apostle right now. It would be foolish to pull him away from that for an errand."

"Is that so?" Even with his self-imposed height, Lekain couldn't begin to reach the heights Zelgius had climbed. The senator's age and his temper left him at a disability in polls of popularity, but money and fear could fill such gaps. However, respect and charisma were two things the general could proudly dangle before the man and snatch away at a moment's notice. "You probably just want to keep this one for yourself, Zelgius."

"You're free to ask the Apostle that yourself."

Lekain huffed, finally deflated to his normal size. "She won't always be able to protect you. You know that, right?"

"Good day, Sir. It has been a pleasure talking to you as always."

Zelgius bowed, motioned for Levail to do the same, and led him off without waiting for the senator's permission. Levail's vision was blurry. He wasn't sure if it was because the great General Zelgius had dared to defend him or if Lekain's presence had poisoned the air around them.

"Always tell him you're busy," Zelgius stated without looking down at him. "The goddess will forgive you for lying if you're not actually busy. I promise even if he goes to the Apostle to check, she will vouch for you."

"S-Sir…you don't have to defend-"

"Don't think that I'm lying for you. I fully intend to give you some work to do. You may not be working directly for the Apostle, but you will be doing her work by helping me. You're free to refuse of course. If you accept, you won't have the time to return to your training today, but you also won't have to sit around waiting for the sharks to pick you off." He stopped, pulling Levail into a small room where a pile of freshly washed tunics were waiting to be pressed and folded.

"What…kind of work?" Levail shifted uncomfortably into a corner between Zelgius and the door.

"Unfortunately, I can't tell you unless you agree to help. Rest assured that it's nothing treasonous or illegal. But it is complicated. I can promise you compensation for your troubles as well."

"Complicated…" The young soldier ran his fingers through his hair, separating the locks of blonde hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. _But exciting._ "If it isn't treasonous or illegal then I have nothing to fear. It would be my honor to assist you, General."

Zelgius smiled, his eyes still locked in a stony gaze. "I'm heard rumors that Lekain may promote you. If that's the case, you'll be my equal, so there's no need to be quite so uptight." He reached into a pouch by his belt and withdrew an envelope.

"Ah...I probably wouldn't accept a promotion. I'm not ready; and I certainly haven't done anything to earn it."

"Accept it."

"Sir?"

"There are a lot of things you can do from a position of power."

"And there are a lot of things you can't do. Isn't that why you're asking me for help?"

The general's smile brightened as he offered the envelop to the soldier. "Deliver this to Duke Persis. Dress as a civilian and see that you're not followed. He'll give you further instructions."

"Yes, Sir!" Levail took the envelop and saluted.

".Remember what I said about Lekain."

"What about you, Sir? Will you be all right?"

"I'll be fine. I'm just...tired."

* * *

 _Author's Note 3: For NaNo, because I was in the mood, I ended up writing a...semi-NSFW (for violence) scene between Leonardo and the guards. I decided to omit it for a variety of reasons: to keep my T-rating, to keep this chapter from becoming too long, to not distract from the overall story...etc. If there's interest, I may edit that bit and upload it as a "deleted scene" of sorts either here or on my deviantART account._

 _Author's Note 4: I didn't really want to use OCs in this, but unfortunately, a lot of the minor bosses in FE were pretty lackluster. I wanted to create some minor villains that weren't just generically evil like most minor bosses seem to be, so there may be a few soldiers that pop up here and there that are of my own devising. Sorry about that! I promise that 99.98% of these characters will come from the actual game._

 _As always, feel free to leave me some comments, critiques, or just general remarks. I love to know what I'm doing well and what I can improve on. I'd love to give particularly helpful comments a shout-out! Hopefully next chapter won't take me so l_ ong...


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note 1: This first note is an apology. It has been WAY too long since I updated. Part of the delay was from the general craziness of life and work. It happens. But most of it was from FE: Heroes. I have not put this game down since it launched. I'll probably put my friend information on my profile if anyone wants to add me. Feel free to chat with me about it as well. Honestly, I've spent more time writing strategies for my favorite characters than even thinking about creative projects. _

_Author's Note 2: I wish I could say that I'm satisfied with this chapter. ...but I'm not. I got stuck on it and had to walk away for a couple of weeks. It just felt...boring. And I still feel like it's that way. The plot will pick up next chapter because the Dawn Brigade will be getting more recruits and have a goal that's bigger than "don't die." But I'm really sorry for the slowness of this story. And the length. Dang. This chapter ended up being way too long. My bad. _

_Author's Note 3: I also apologize in advance for the angst. Apparently I have a problem._

* * *

 **From Dusk Until Dawn**

 **Chapter 5: Conviction**

She saw him, and he saw her for just a moment, each one of the most unassuming creatures the other could have imagined. He was the embodiment of a shadow shrinking as the light she emanated faded. He didn't run; he tried to remain stagnant, shrinking with the darkness into oblivion, avoiding the light... She thought at first that her mind conjured the metaphor to comprehend the figure before her, but the longer she watched him, the less tangible he became. And so did she. She reached out to touch him from behind, compelled to stroke his long dark hair by some inane childlike desire, but her hand passed through him, and he didn't seem to notice her touch. She could hear a voice speaking to her...or perhaps him, muffled as though it were trapped inside of a jar. It couldn't have been this shadow's. It rumbled low and deep, knocking against her from every which direction like a typhoon. Now the darkness was forcing her to shrink. The shadow turned, and Micaiah found herself trapped behind his ruby-red eyes, glowing like the pits of hell. Tears, just as red, fell down his cheeks, staining his hand as he caught them, but still a few leaked onto the ground. The earth soaked them up, demanding more, so tears of blood poured out from his heart as well.

All of the sudden, the world itself seemed to swallow him up. He screamed, and she reached for his hand. Much to her surprise, she caught it, and for the first time, he seemed to notice her. Sound didn't come from his mouth, but she didn't need to hear him, to know what he said.

 _Help me._

His fingers slipped through her grasp once more, and the earth claimed him, but she still felt his presence even in the void of silence that followed like a sigh before an episode of weeping. And she was awake once more.

But he wasn't so sure about himself.

He blinked, and she was gone. But he was still there. Still breathing. Still bleeding. Blood dripped from his forehead onto the parchment in his hands, and he brushed away another drop with the back of his hand, smearing it across this pale face.

"How much blood did you lose?" his companion asked, steadying his shoulders with two firm hands.

"I'm fine. How much did _you_ lose?"

"No. _I'm_ fine. I can afford to lose a bit. But you look like a ghost. If you'd stop being a stubborn numbskull for two minutes-"

"For you of all people to call me a stubborn numbskull...I must look dreadful." He held his hand to the gash on his forehead after more blood dripped into his eye. The stuff had matted his black hair against his forehead, leaving a crown of what appeared to be gore, sweat, and shadows. Using the sleeve of his robe, he applied pressure to the wound, forcing the parchment in his hands into his companion's. "They have no intention of killing me. But I have no idea what they would do to you."

"They're not going to do anything to either of us. You know I wouldn't let that happen."

"You can't always control the outcome of these things."

"Wow...for you of all people to tell me that… You must have hit your head harder than I thought."

"Stop it already." The smaller of the two drove a bony finger into his comrade's forehead, forcing the man's thick skull back just a few inches. Despite his bloodied hands, he retrieved his map and grimaced as his friend's face began to hover by his shoulder, breathing uncomfortably moist air into his personal space. The man's breath warmed him for only a moment before the cold air began to crystallize it, leaving him colder than before. His friend remained hovering for a moment before lowering his head over the smaller man's shoulder once more to get a good look at the parchment in his hands.

"The closest village looks like it's north," the larger of the two mumbled, jabbing a finger at a soggy clump of ink that could have been a group of homes. "We can go around the forest instead of through it and try to shake them that way."

"That will lead us too close to Gallia." The smaller man, wrinkled his nose, eyes glistening with resentment and fear. "If the smell of that place alone could kill us..."

"Then hold your breath. Easy enough solution. I don't feel like dying today because a little change in atmosphere 'bothers' you."

"Nothing seems ideal. Retreating may just cause trouble for the others. ...how many did you get in that last confrontation?"

"Four. You?"

"I got two and maybe wounded a third…Hm…" He squeezed his eyes shut tapping his fingers over the aged landscaped etched into their map. "If we find somewhere to wait for them, we could finish off the rest of them. Then..." No thoughts...he couldn't create enough of a spark inside of his skull to conjure one measly solution. _Get over it. Think._ "Th-Then…"

"Hey, are you-"

"That would leave seven...another four for you, and maybe three for me...it's not impossible perhaps..."

"I could make anything work, but I'm not sure about you. Did that sniper-"

He couldn't feel the map in his hand no matter how tightly he dug his fingers in. He reached a hand down his lower back, robes drenched with sweat, but it wasn't cold like the rest of him. Wet and sticky and uncomfortably warm… "They wouldn't have time to bother unless they had more allies hidden nearby…" The smaller man winced, blinking several times, the map growing more distant the more intensely he tried to stare at it. "L-Letting us slip away would be a less than ideal... No. They'll come for us no...no matter what..."

His companion patted his cheek, trying to bring out some color in it before wrapping an arm around him and urging him forward. "Let's walk and talk before you bleed out. Are you sure they didn't get you somewhere else?"

"Maybe you should let me sit...go find some help…"

"Hey...c'mon...none of that now. Shake it off. You're not allowed to sleep here."

"Tch...I'm not sleeping...I just need…to think…"

Uncomfortably warm and frightfully cold at the same time. He doubted there was such a thing as a peaceful death. 

* * *

"You asleep, Micky?"

The young woman shuddered, shaking her head to prove to herself and Edward that she was in fact awake. The sun was just beginning to peek through the cloak of trees around them. Leonardo had been the only one to sleep and not of his own volition.

 _The Dawn Brigade._

"That's what everyone calls you," Laura continued, her work uninterrupted by Micaiah's dream. Despite hours of work, she still fussed over Leonardo's body, healing even minor scrapes and inquiring over old scars. He could breathe comfortably now, but the bruises around his neck had only darkened throughout the night. Laura paused, finding nothing new to fuss over aside from a few strands of hair out of place. "I'm not entirely sure why now that I think about it. I always assumed you had created the persona yourselves."

"We tossed around 'Micaiah's Harem' for a while," Edward admitted, his voice pinched despite the lifeless grin on his face. Nolan tossed him a canteen, and he took a grateful sip. "'Dawn Brigade' sounds a little conceited, don't ya' think?"

"'Brigade' has very few meanings beyond the obvious one, but symbolically and literally, 'dawn' could mean a number of things. Perhaps it's conceited, but it's also fitting considering what you folks are trying to do for us." She fell silent for a moment, running her fingers through the archer's hair. Her emotional and physical restraint stopped at her fingers. They danced erratically with her excitement and trembled with her sadness, but now they had stilled to mechanical rhythm. "I'm sorry to hear about your maiden. Word travels fast, and Daein shall mourn her loss with you."

"Thank you," Nolan said. For the past hour, his eyes hadn't left the somewhat unsteady rise and fall of the archer's chest. "At least we didn't lose another tonight…"

"Call me crazy, but I don't believe this is the last we've seen of the Maiden."

"Because of that...bird you followed out here?"

Flushed in the face, the priestess faltered, hands fiddling with the natural creases of her robes until she settled on an explanation. "I believe it was a vision. Religious sects have many texts about common priests and priestesses granted divine visions. But in this day and age, we're so disconnected from the divine realm that visions are unheard of. Well...there are obvious exceptions like Empress Sanaki. I suppose my dream could have been a dream, but it led me here regardless. That's worth something, isn't it?"

"What exactly did you see?" Micaiah asked, trying to keep her eyes open.

"Almost exactly what happened...except the bird was present. She led me out here to you, and she also promised that if I sided with the Dawn Brigade, I'd...find aid."

Nolan retrieved his canteen and took a swig as well, wiping a few droplets from the scruff in his beard. "We're not exactly in the best shape to be helping anyone but ourselves at the moment, as awful as that sounds…"

"Yes, I know, but perhaps I could explain myself in detail later once you've rested. Regardless of what you decide, I'll offer my services and try to see you to safety. Your friend here should awaken soon. And your missing companion should be arriving any minute now…" Her hands returned to Leonardo's hair once again, separating strands as if to braid it.

"Whoa wait!" Edward held up his hands even though Laura clearly wasn't going anywhere. "How'd you know we were down a man?"

"There was someone else in my dream, and he appeared to be friendly; however, the conversation following his appearance was a bit hostile. I suppose he could have been an enemy..."

"Hostile?" Micaiah might have said more, but the rustling of the bushes behind her stopped the thought from escaping.

A figure emerged, feet dragging behind it. It swayed in the dawn's gentle breeze which might have knocked it over had it been just a bit stronger. As it approached the dying embers of the fire, the light danced upon the shadows of Sothe's face, drawing them longer and darker than they probably should have been. He was soaked through, his clothes, hair, leaves, and blades of grass sticking to his skin. He stood before the group, waiting for someone to acknowledge his existence, and finally Micaiah rose.

"Where is she?"

"Some-..." His voice cracked. "-old friends took her."

"Ours? Hers? Yours?"

"Hers...and mine." He staggered a few steps before sinking down next to Nolan who offered him the mostly empty canteen. The rogue refused it.

"Hers? Yours?"

"Who're you?" Sothe looked towards the priestess and then down at Leonardo. "What happened to him?"

"My name is Laura. I'm a-"

"Leonardo found out what happens to prostitutes that decide to refuse service to Begnion soldiers," Edward muttered without bothering to look up at him. "You just...gave her away...after all of that?"

"I figured someone who knew her a little better could bury her. Look, I spent the night lugging a corpse around. I don't want to hear it. I could only carry the extra weight for so long. But I think I lured the guards away far enough at least."

"She wasn't 'extra weight.' She was someone's daughter and friend! You could have-"

"No, I couldn't. I tried. Believe me, but I have my limits. Just like the rest of you. She'll get a proper burial somewhere nice. We just won't give it to her."

"Did you know her?" Micaiah asked. Sothe didn't answer. "Is this how you planned to handle the situation? Did you _ask_ her to do this for us?"

"It wasn't like that, Micky…"

"Then what was it like, Sothe?!"

"If I may-" For a moment, Laura's voice was finally louder than the drop of a pin. "I may not understand the situation, but we could perform a small memorial to honor her. Arguing won't change the fact that she's gone, and a memorial isn't the same as burial, but perhaps it will help put your hearts to rest."

The tension remained on Sothe as he rested his head in his hands. Nolan stood, pushed Micaiah down with one hand, and picked the rogue up by the shoulder. "Let's walk. Now."

The rogue hung limp at the axeman's mercy, still swaying in the breeze. He was urged forward and then dragged off into the fading shadows of the night. Nolan let the silence fester and grow until the rogue's feet refused to propel him further anymore. He held him at arm's length, hands squeezing his shoulders until he squirmed underneath the growing pressure, but he wasn't strong enough to tear himself away. He didn't want to. This much, he deserved.

"Just yell. Do it. I screwed up."

"You're not all right, Sothe. I may not be happy, but that's not your fault. I care about Daein, but you boys and Micky, you're...not something I can replace. I've tried that before, and let me tell you, it doesn't work. The goddess makes one of us, and that's all we get. When you lose someone close to you, your heart just scars over, and it may seem all right after a while, but that's not fixing it. One of these days, my old heart won't be able to mend itself anymore… So you tell me what's wrong."

His legs finally gave out. Nolan was the only thing holding him up, and he allowed the two of them to kneel on the forest poured from the young man's eyes onto the ground. The earth hungrily lapped them up until Nolan reached a gloved hand across his cheeks to catch them.

"I can still smell her," he muttered. "I washed my hands...I washed everything, but I can still smell her. C-Can you, Nolan?"

"...did you know her?"

"A contact. ...Julia. She said she'd help out. She'd draw them away. We could get to Crimea or Begnion...She'd be fine. I thought she'd be fine. She wasn't supposed...supposed to…"

"Sometimes things go wrong." Too wrong. So wrong. They could lose everything. They _had_ lost everything. That's why they were here, but sometimes they weren't prepared to deal with that feeling again when it came around. And that beast _always_ reared its ugly head again. "You can't do this on your own. That's why the rest of us are here. You're smart, and we need you, but you need us too."

"I-I know…" Sothe looked like he wanted to say more, but he wasn't worthy enough to continue. His mouth hung open, gasping for air, for intelligible words, but none would come. "I still smell her."

"No more secrets, Sothe."

Nothing.

"Sothe?" Still nothing. He pulled the young man into his embrace and let him sob.

 _Secrets._ Micaiah shivered, watching the men as still as shadows in the middle of the forest. The morning breeze should have been comforting. She thought she had seen the sun for a bit, but it was gone now like always as of late. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen a dawn. Maybe that was why the people had given them that name-they needed something to looking forward to in the morning instead of this grey dullness that choked the warmth out of the country. Or maybe they liked the mystery… She hated it. Secrets. Those were what made them weak...divided…

She saw Sothe make eye contact with her for just a moment, but he didn't see her, not really. He didn't see anything but his own sorrow...those girl's eyes… The noble half of her wanted to forgive him, but the human half wasn't ready. She found it was a bitter, monstrous creature. It writhed inside of her, wanting to cut him with its tongue and watch him bleed out. She hated this side of her, but it was the thing that made her feel normal.

Well...except for secrets. But her secrets scared her more than anything else. 

* * *

When Leonardo awakened, he had no idea where he was. And when he tried to breathe, his lungs burned. Cold, exposed, vulnerable… He was a boy again, meeting that young woman at night in the empty halls of the barracks, sickeningly beautiful. Her hands had been ice on his skin, but they were also soft. Despite their sting, he could at least pretend they had been pleasant. But that man…

"Please...don't move yet. I'm not finished-"

That woman. He had never imagined that soft hands could hurt quite so much. On his throat...his chest...his lips...

"Don't touch me," he rasped, slapping away the unfamiliar hand. He forced himself to sit up, blushing as a blanket fell away and exposed his chest. "Where are my clothes?"

"Ah…"

He pulled the blanket back up over his bareness and stared down the stranger. The poor girl seemed unsurprised at his hostility, but she couldn't stop fidgeting for some odd reason. She leaned back in a chair, folding her hands into her lap where she tapped them against her legs. "If I can explain myself, that might put you at ease; however, you'd have to believe me. I told your friends you would have been more comfortable waking up to one of their faces."

"I don't have to do any such thing," Leonardo answered coldly. "But I'll listen and judge your truthfulness for myself."

"That's fair enough. Unfortunately, we don't live in a world where we can give our trust away so freely." Taking a deep breath, she started with a smile that was so genuine, it made him uncomfortable. "My name is Laura. I'm a priestess, and you and your friends are guests at the abbey I work at. I don't know the circumstances surrounding your injuries or the events leading up to our meeting, but you've been unconscious for about half a day...on and off. You awakened for a little bit, but I can see you don't remember that."

"Where are my friends?"

"My...village is in trouble. The abbot is sick, and the soldiers have requisitioned a lot of our resources, so I can't take care of him. And...well...we need-"

"I hate to be frank, but I'd prefer it if you told me where my friends were before you rambled. It makes me wonder if they're even alive..."

"Oh of course! Forgive me. They're very much alive the last time I checked. Your friends agreed to try and procure some medicine from Begnion's storage...just enough to help get the abbot out of his slump. I know it's wrong to ask someone to steal on my behalf, but I've tried reasoning with the soldiers. I know they're in need just like we are...but there doesn't seem to be a middle ground we can meet on…"

"They're greedy bastards. They want what they want because they're big and scary enough to take it. There's no other reason at this point. They know they're hurting me...us...you." He reached a hand up to his head as if to soothe away a headache.

"Now...not all of them are terrible. It may not seem like it, but I think they're scared of something. They remind me of cornered dogs in a way…"

"You're right about that dog part at least…"

"Regardless, your friends should be returning soon.. I insisted they rest a bit more before they went off on a mission, but they wanted to be prepared to leave as soon as you awakened. Sothe seemed to think it wouldn't be a difficult task."

"He would think that…" Leo sat up straighter, his whole body aching. Why should it ache? He'd been through training more gruesome than that before. He had taken his share of beatings. He wasn't dead. Maybe it was because he knew they were sitting in a hive of soldiers just looking for them. It could happen again, and next time he wouldn't be so lucky. At the very least, he still had his trousers, so he was comfortable pulling the blanket up around his shoulders. "And you helped some strangers you found wandering about…"

"If we can't trust in the kindness of others, we live in dark times indeed. It may not be the wisest approach to life, but I choose to believe there's enough good left to help others even with the risk of getting hurt myself." She reached a hand out of her lap and rubbed it gently, the soft flesh still red from where he had slapped her.

"Unfortunately, at this point in time, I would rather be safe than kind." He dipped his head in apology. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You're forgiven. Yet I find it strange that that's your philosophy, and you still choose this life. If you would rather be safe, wouldn't you be better off running away to Crimea or Begnion?"

"I didn't say my friends shared the same philosophy. I still don't think our approach is very wise, but it's all we have. The only resources we have are what we've learned or can learn. It's not much, but we use what we're given or can take."

Laura rose, stepping towards the window to open the shutters. Her hands lingered on the dried wood, still tapping out a strange yet cheerful rhythm. No light poured through, but the air was almost warm and fragrant with the crispness of dried leaves. When she turned back, her unnerving smile had returned. "I'm not sure I believed in the concept of noble bandits until today, but that's most definitely what you are. I have a good feeling about all of this."

"How so?"

"I can't explain it...at least not yet. Words don't always work the way you'd like them to. That's something the abbey tends to teach people. But I've already talked enough. Let me get you some food. You're in rather good shape if you ask me, not quite as thin as your friend, but a warm meal won't kill you."

"No. I suppose it won't."

Her optimism ached more than any bump or bruise on his body. If their past endeavors were anything to guide him by, this would end badly. The next time someone made a mistake, someone would die. 

* * *

_You screwed up._

 _You'll screw up again._

 _This won't make it right._

 _I should have let you die._

Sothe wasn't sure what voice he was hearing. Sometimes it sounded like his own, but something distorted it, leaving traces of every companion he had ever traveled with. But somehow the tone always ended with a deep rumble, stern and heavy just like the war. The rogue knew that _he_ of all people would be disappointed. _He_ would never ask a friend to make such a sacrifice...or allow it to happen by accident.

"Wake up already," Edward muttered, shaking the thief by the shoulder. "Micky's gonna start that fire any second now. We've gotta be ready to get in and out. If you're gonna zone out, I'm going in alone."

"You know that Nolan said-"

"Yeah yeah. But I'd rather go in alone than risk having to drag your sorry butt out of there. I've got my limits too, and trust me. I won't be able to drag you far enough to-"

"Shut up." Sothe squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing at the bags. _It should have been you._ That's all Edward's eyes said. He didn't want to look at them a moment longer. Nolan was right. He should have tried to sleep before this. But it wouldn't have worked. Her smell would keep him up.

"Fine. She did it." Edward's voice was flat. But they could both taste smoke on the wind. It billowed above the trees, drawing the attention of three guards that paced about a small shack in desperate need of repairs. They looked towards each other for a moment, not a single one of them wanting to take the charge until finally a man with hair as dark as blood began to bark out profanities.

"Move or I make sure you never move again!" One well-placed jab from his spear narrowly missed permanently blinding the smallest of the three men.

None of them needed a second warning. They scrambled into action, disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye. Edward shrunk down into the foliage, waiting for the man to leave as well, but as the seconds passed, he stayed, pacing, mumbling to himself. His sharp eyes darted past their hiding place a few times locking onto anything that moved.

"Crap…" Sothe started to draw a dagger, but the swordsman stopped him.

"I'll draw him away. You just take what we need and go." He was already on his feet, ready to run off when the rogue caught him by the shirt and pulled him back down. "Sothe, we don't have time for this. Either you do it or-"

"No. Look at that armor." He raised a shaking finger and traced the man's outline with it. The size of his pauldrons alone should have been a good indication of his ego. "Magenta. He's got a rank. Maybe not a very high one, but you don't get promoted in Begnion without skill. Money gets you pretty far in the Senate but not the military. You might be faster, but if he catches you, he'll skewer you. Or worse."

"I won't fight fair."

"Neither will he. We'll go around him."

"There's not any time for this. Once the others realize that Micaiah and Nolan aren't-"

"Then go. I'll handle him." This wasn't any different than the war, he assured himself. His knives had seen the skin of soldiers' throats more than he would have liked to recall. But this one wasn't the starving lackey pressured or forced into the service of the Mad King. His eyes shone with the same playful malice he had seen on the face of the Ashnard himself.

"But-"

"Just go. I'll buy you five minutes." He had pulled himself into a tree and disappeared before Edward had the chance to protest. The swordsman wasn't sure the rogue was even still in the area until a knife flew from a tree and lodged itself in the back of the man's leg. He howled, the playfulness in his eyes completely extinguished by razing fire. As a second one flew for his chest, simply bouncing off his armor, his eyes locked onto the shadow slinking away through the treetops.

"Well then… Someone finally wants to play. You had better be gone by time I return with his head. Or you'll be joining him."

Edward couldn't move. The man's gaze hadn't shifted from Sothe's position, but every word was meant for him. He held his sword in his lap, refusing to breathe until the man had limped out of view. He counted a full minute until his legs agreed to work once more, staggering across the open area to the shed. The lock fell away with a well-placed kick, and he slipped inside.

"Don't you dare do something stupid, Sothe."

 _Stop, and he'll kill you. That should make up for it._

 _It will be nice and slow._

 _He'll make sure you feel every second of it right until you die._

 _Imagine how it felt for her._

Sothe's foot slipped, but he managed to catch himself. The man's armor slowed him down significantly as he tore through the underbrush, screaming profanities at the young man. The rogue had already failed once, and if he let himself get caught, he'd fail again. However, if he stayed too far ahead, he might grow bored of the chase and return to find Edward… There were only so many times the goddess could forgive mistakes by giving second chances. And he'd made enough mistakes in the past year alone to get him a death sentence.

But dying would just cause more complications in the long run. They'd be down a man. The others could come looking for his body. He'd get someone else hurt.

 _Keep breathing. Keep breathing._ He forced himself higher into the trees and waited, watching below until the man thundered past him. This was far enough. He had to keep him here. He readied another dagger between his teeth and jumped down, landing on the man's back with enough force to knock him down. He grabbed him by his hair as he attempted to recover and slammed his face down into the ground, angling the blade of his dagger at his throat. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't gut you right now?" he growled through clenched teeth.

The man laughed, his body tense even through his armor even, though something about his voice was eerily calm. It wrapped around Sothe like a snake and squeezed just enough to make his stomach turn. The man pushed himself up a bit by his arms, but Sothe's grip forced him to a halt. "Because I won't let you, you filthy dog. The day I let something like you finish me off, is the day I deserve to die."

"Maybe today's that day." His voice cracked and the man's lips twisted into a cruel smile.

"You're still a pathetic child. I thought so. Begnion has been letting glorified orphans run rampant. We should have emptied the orphanages when we had a chance. Fewer mouths to feed. Fewer problems festering. Maybe that's something I can arrange once I've handled you and your friends."

Sothe smashed his fist into the side of the man's head, shutting him up for just a second. "The only problem here is you. I'd learn to hold my tongue before someone cuts it out."

"You seem to forget. I did take your Maiden from you. But then again, I'm beginning to wonder if I've even accomplished that. I half expected a goddess incarnate after hearing some of the stories about her. But instead, I got a common whore. She cried far too much to be a noble savior for anyone. And you wouldn't believe the things she offered to keep her life." He relaxed against Sothe's grip, comfortably resting his neck against Sothe's blade. "I'd love to know what you did with the body…"

Sothe swung his fist again, but this time the man rolled over, swinging his own fist into Sothe's jaw. It connected forcing the young man onto his back. He barely rolled out of the way in time to avoid being skewered. The man stabbed at him again, and this time Sothe returned to the trees.

"Do you think hiding will keep you safe forever? I'll hunt down you and the rest of your urchin friends, and I'll string you up from the castle gates. No one crosses the Empire."

 _Higher. Get higher._

He doubted the man could climb in his armor even if it wasn't quite as full as a standard knight's, but if he stayed here long enough, reinforcements would come. However if he engaged him, he would die. Aside from a small limp, he apparently hadn't done enough damage to hinder his ego. He just needed to keep him away from Edward for as long as possible. Suddenly, he wished it was dark.

"How old are you? Sixteen? Seventeen? Maybe eighteen at most? I'm sure that matters about as much to you as it does to me. I know what it's like to be young, ready to change things. But the only people who get to change things are those with friends in high places. And let me tell you, the pretty birds high up in their nests don't care to make friends with the foxes lurking down below."

The man turned, a rustling in the trees drawing his attention. He probably would have charged had a dagger not lodged itself in his hand. His lance clattered to the ground right as Sothe swung down once more, slamming both feet into the man's face, completely satisfied with the crunch underneath his boots. "I don't care to change things. Daein can burn in hell, but I'm going to make sure you join it."

The man reached his unbloodied glove across his face to dab at the blood dripping from his nose, seemingly unfazed by it. "Have at me, pup." Sothe swung another kick, but this time the man caught it in one hand, twisting it with the flick of a wrist. The rogue had to twist it further to slide out of his grasp, something popping. Something bad. He could put his weight on it but not for very long.

"I thought I should return the favor. That ought to keep you from running off. Now let's see what I can do about those hands…"

Sothe wasn't fast enough to stop him from retrieving his weapon. He decided to prioritize guarding himself, whipping out two daggers to catch the lance as it flew towards his chest. He didn't hold the parry for longer than a few seconds, throwing both of his arms up to force the man to move with him. He followed up, lashing out with his foot, only for his ankle to meet the cold metal shaft of the man's lance. This time, he was forced to move at the man's whims, flipping back until he was trapped between a wall of trees and the man's form. He tried to jump to grab onto a low-hanging branch, but the man's lance swiped at his arms, forcing him to stay grounded. His escape plans thwarted, the rogue was forced to guard again, his daggers barely keeping the man's lance inches away from his throat.

 _Move._

He held his breath and relaxed his grip, ducking under the lance's tip as it dug itself into a tree. He went for his legs jabbing at the still leaking wound from before until the man howled again. As he flailed about, trying to right himself, the rogue dug his knee into the man's groin and his elbow into his throat, pinning him to the ground. His dagger fell towards his head once more, but the man caught it with his gauntlet. Another punch sent his weapon flying. _Crap._ He dug his knee in harder until the man screamed, until his cries turned into a forced laughter that made Sothe shiver.

With mechanical precision, the man grabbed the rogue by the shirt pulled him down so their heads clashed. Sothe tasted blood, and he wasn't sure if it was is own or not. The man's fingers dug into the rogue's skin, not quite enough to leave a mark, at least a physical one.

 _Leverage. You have leverage. Use it._

He couldn't find his dagger, so he jammed both of his thumbs into the man's eyes. That was enough to get him free. He scrambled backwards, crawling to his feet. The man had barely sat up when Sothe found his way back into the trees. That was enough. If he tried to finish him, he might not be able to return. He darted in the direction opposite of the fire blazing in the distance. If that wasn't enough time for Edward, the swordsman was out of luck.

 _Dying is easy. It just takes a moment. One mistake. Maybe two if you're lucky._

His foot slipped again, forcing him to a halt as he clung to a branch for dear life. _Breathe. Keep breathing._

 _You could have killed him._

 _He could have killed you._

 _Micaiah doesn't want you._

 _But she needs you…_

 _Maybe._

* * *

 __Leonardo finally saw himself in the mirror. Everything was where it needed to be, but he couldn't recognize himself through the shadows still wrapped around his neck. It was like that man was still there. The bruises started at his brow and streaked down the side of his face like a caress that ended with rings, both of his hands, around his neck.

"They'll go away," Laura assured him. "...I'm sorry someone hurt you like that."

"It's nothing I haven't experienced before," he muttered as he fitted his belt into place. "I appreciate the concern however."

"I've noticed that the highborn have more issues than the rest of us combined. You lot are just better at concealing your problems...for the most part."

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about me as though you knew me. I could be highborn. I could be an urchin. Assumptions are dangerous, Sister."

"It's a good assumption. You speak far too formally to be an urchin...but I'll try to watch myself in the future."

Suddenly, cheers erupted from down the hall, and Laura jumped towards the door, throwing it open. Another priestess took her arm, speaking so quickly that it might have well been in tongues. "Yes, it's them!" Laura translated. "I have to go, but I'll tell them you're awake! Do you plan to come greet them?"

"I'll be out shortly. Thank you."

Laura left in a flurry of white, priests and priestesses alike emerging from every crack in the old building. He waited for them to pass before stepping into the hall, trying to stay ten paces behind the cheers. Despite the growing crowd, he finally spied his group at the abbey's entrance, carrying a bag filled with much more than just medicine for the abbott. They had likely cleaned out a good portion of the storage. And the guards had been too busy looking for a missing body to bother with their normal routine.

Edward saw him, and in a flash, he was gone, weaving through the pious crowd. When he reemerged, he threw himself at the archer, arms wrapped around his body, and they both crashed to the ground. It hurt. Almost more than the assault. He thought for a moment that the swordsman might tear him to shreds, and that's why it hurt. The doubt.

"You look like a walking corpse," the swordsman admitted once he was certain the blow hadn't killed his friend. "Just a little better than Sothe. You scared us…"

"I was scared too..."

"But we're all fine. Tired, but fine."

"Does that mean we're leaving now?"

"You'd think that...but no. We...probably need to, but Sothe's dead on his feet, and the old man's back is killing him. Apparently, you shouldn't take a dive like he did past the age of 30. So we'll probably stay a few hours at least. The 'new guy' doesn't sense anything off kilter, but this place will be crawling with soldiers in no time."

"The new guy…?" Edward winked, and suddenly the archer remembered. Micaiah was dead. For now. "Can you...get off of me?"

"I don't know. I thought we might stay like this for a while and enjoy ourselves."

"Okay, dingbat. Get off." He shoved his elbow into his friend's chest.

"That's more like it! Assert yourself!" 

* * *

A feast seemed particularly foolish after the trouble the group went through to procure supplies for the abbey. Nolan reasoned with the clergy, and eventually settled the priests settled on just a warm meal and beds as a reward. That was more than they had had in a long time. Meanwhile, he had to try to keep his boys away from all of the pretty priestesses who seemed a little too interested in them for their own good. Or the good of their vows.

Micaiah was grateful for the meal, but it hadn't sat well with her. Maybe she had just grown used to feeling empty. The abbey seemed too warm, and it was for that reason that she felt unwelcome. She wasn't allowed to be somewhere so inviting. Not for very long. The cold of the evening didn't seem as bitter as it had been in the past, but she still found herself shivering as she stared down the road. No danger. She sensed nothing, but she still expected it.

She heard footsteps and jumped, fists raised for a brawl.

"Peace...I didn't mean to startle you."

"Laura...I was just getting some fresh air…"

"I thought so. I was beginning to think that you simply liked the cold. I don't mind it myself all that much." She walked right up next to the mage and pointed out at the distance. "The view is prettier that way. My little village isn't very famous, but I think it should be, especially this time of year."

"Why is that?"

"Well, nothing's dead quite yet, so we can still enjoy the colors of autumn. We always get a bit of mist after cloudy days. It's strangely lovely. Or perhaps living here has given me a fondness of the macabre."

"I wouldn't mind seeing it." Micaiah offered the young woman a smile. It was so strange finding someone so mature yet child-like at the same time.

"Then I'll reveal to you the true motivation behind my invitation." She took Micaiah's wrist and tugged her down the road into the woods.

"Do you plan to turn me over to Begnion?"

"Nothing quite so treacherous. This is embarrassing to admit, but I don't know your name. You might have introduced yourself, but I can't seem to remember. Everything happened so quickly..."

"I probably didn't. I'm sorry. I erm…" She hadn't discussed this with the boys. She hadn't even thought this through herself. "Everyone calls me Micky."

"Now that I seem to recall. And your Maiden's name was Micaiah? That must have been confusing."

"My name is...a complicated thing. All my life, people have given them to me. I've been told that names are earned. I can't take one for myself. Part of me still believes that. But her name is one I haven't been able to part with quite yet. It's one I gave myself. And here I am with the opportunity to take a new one, and I find that I can't do it."

"You must have been close to her."

"I'm not sure I really even knew her that well. I like to think that I could be like her… Or at least what people thought of her."

"Not if you didn't know her very well." Laura giggled and stuck out her hand for Micaiah to take. "It's a pleasure to meet you Micky. Thank you and your friends for everything."

Micaiah took the girl's hand and squeezed it hard as Nolan usually did when he greeted someone. They then continued their walk until they reached a fork in the road. Behind them, they could still see the abbey through the trees but just barely. A bit of fog had crept in around them like ghosts.

"Maybe it isn't beautiful. But I like it."

"It's beautiful in its own way. Everything has its own beauty and worth. It's difficult to place a value on things like that."

"But we still find a way."

They stood in silence for a long while, watching the mist creep in until everything was white. Not grey. She wasn't sure if she preferred this or not. But Laura thought it was beautiful, and Laura was beautiful, and Micaiah needed to enjoy more beautiful things in the world while they lasted. She wanted the beauty again, the ability to place such a superficial value on things...like normal folks.

"Were you related to the maiden by chance?" Laura asked, her voice small. "This may be a silly assumption. But I just...I have this strange feeling..."

"Laura...I…" Secrets killed. But this was dangerous too. They would all die. This would be the end. "We should return. I'd like to sleep."

"Then goodnight," a low voice hissed.

Not Laura's voice. Micaiah turned and swung a fist blindly. It connected with something. A jaw. She felt saliva as her fingers crunched against skin and bone. But something else connected with her head first. The sharp pain blinded her for a moment, and she stumbled back, Laura's hands trying to steady her as she screamed. They wouldn't hear her. Micaiah swung again, but this time she missed and a second blow to the head sent her sprawling to the ground.

More darkness. 

* * *

_Author's Note 4: If you made it this far. Thank you for reading. I know I still have a lot to improve upon as a writer, so I always appreciate comments and critiques. I've started a small list of words and phrases I'm not going to let myself use in the next chapter. I rely on them way too much. If anyone also has any advice for writing fight scenes as well, I'd definitely love to hear it. They're quite possibly my least favorite thing in the world to write. _


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